


Paradox Children

by TheNarator



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Amnesia, Dubious Science, E2-Wells is a dick, Jesse is even more amazing, Medical Experimentation, Minor Character Death, Multi, Original Harrison Wells is amazing, People Coming Back from the Dead, Sadistic Experiements, Speedster!Jesse, Wells Family Feels, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-07-15 10:58:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 73,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7219699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNarator/pseuds/TheNarator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry changes the timeline so that his mother lives and Eobard Thawne never kills Harrison Wells. This has the unforeseen consequence of creating an Earth-1 version of Jesse, who befriends Cisco and Hartley and draws them into her wonderful family. The timeline must be corrected though, and Jesse soon discovers that she is a person who was never meant to exist. Cisco, however, is determined to make sure his best friend gets the life she deserves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> i'm sorry for how jump-around-y this gets at times, but essentially this is a version of season three told entirely in the scenes in between big meta of the week fights.

For Harrison and Tess, STAR Labs had always been the dream. Science was their shared passion, from their first meeting as college lab partners to the day they got married. They worked so well as a couple because they understood each other as academics; their relationship and their dream had been so tied up in one another that there was no separating them. Theirs was a polyamorous marriage with the work as their third partner, and the lab had always been their baby.

So the addition of an actual baby had caused something of an upset to their little world.

Jesse came as something of a surprise, though hardly an unwelcome one. Tess and Harrison adored one another, so anything they had made together couldn’t be bad. When she arrived Jesse was as bright and sharp as it was possible for a child to be, and her father grew fond of calling her his “Jesse Quick” for how fast she learned about the world around her. She was perfect in every possible way.

Of course the dream of the lab by no means went away, and being both parents and the joint heads of STAR Labs was yet another aspect of their lives that got curiously jumbled together. There was no “daycare” for the youngest member of the Wells-Morgan family, she went to work just like everyone else, and watched in fascination as what would become the world’s foremost research facility took shape around her. Harrison and Tess parented the lab just as much as they did their daughter, choosing their employees themselves and personally overseeing every aspects of the lab’s operation.

For Jesse, STAR Labs was like a second home. Everybody knew her there, everybody liked her, and for the longest time she was just as much as fixture in the lab as her parents. School came as an annoyance at first, just something to drag her away from her wonderful life, but it didn’t take long for her to figure out that the world was much bigger than the tiny bubble she’d lived in up that point, and and that learning about it would bring her closer to her beloved lab, not farther away from it. She devoured every book she could get her hands on, breezing through elementary school until by the time she was eleven years old she’d already skipped three grades.

“That’s my Jesse Quick,” her father would say, kissing her forehead.

Her mother would just smile proudly down at her.

If there was one thing about Jesse’s life that was less than perfect, it was that most of her classmates, the people with which she was meant to be friends, didn’t particularly like her. They were all older than her, and they didn’t like the fact that someone younger than they were was smarter than them, so they weren’t exactly nice to her. Jesse didn’t really mind this -- they were all very boring anyway -- but sometimes she’d have liked to have a friend her own age.

Of course, that wasn’t to say that she had no friends at all.


	2. The Sky Is Full of Stars

Harrison stared through the glass walls of the cortex at his newest hire, a boy of only twenty-four named Hartley Rathaway. He was easily the youngest member of the STAR Labs team, brilliant and accomplished for his age, but to Harrison’s concern he just didn’t seem to be fitting in at the lab. He was aloof and often abrasive, and he didn’t mesh very well with the other members of his team. His brilliance, while impressive, detracted from the experience of working at STAR Labs.

Harrison didn’t like things that detracted from the experience of working at STAR Labs.

“Hartley,” he called as the boy passed him on his way out.

Hartley turned to face him, back straight and face impassive. “Sir,” he replied.

Harrison gave him a friendly smile. “There’s no need to call me ‘sir’ Hartley,” he said amiably. “Dr. Wells is just fine.”

Hartley nodded his understanding but did not relax. “Dr. Wells,” he amended.

“Any big plans for Thanksgiving?” Harrison probed gently.

Hartley shook his head. “Not particularly Sir- Dr. Wells.”

Harrison tried not to look pitying. “Not even with your parents?” he asked. Someone of Hartley’s age might not be well established on their own, but surely they’d be welcome to join their family for the holiday.

Hartley’s face, however, took on a hooded look. “No,” he said shortly, “they wouldn’t want me.”

“Why not?” asked Harrison, perplexed.

“I’m-” Hartley hesitated, “not exactly welcome at home.”

Harrison’s eyes narrowed. “Not welcome?” he repeated, struggling to comprehend what could make a parent turn away their child, especially a child like Hartley.

“They disowned me,” Hartley clarified, voice a little harsher than it had been, “when I was nineteen.”

“What possible reason could they have for that?” Harrison demanded in shock. “You’re a brilliant young scientist, you’re employed by the foremost research facility in the country and your work on the particle accelerator is going to change the world. What more could they ask for?”

Hartley looked at Harrison in surprise, his cheeks going pink. “Um,” he coughed, “someone straight, I suppose.”

Harrison blinked at him, barely understanding the words that had come out of his mouth. Hartley’s parents had disowned him, _him_ , a child with as sharp a mind and as bright a future as Harrison had ever seen, over his sexuality?

Hartley seemed to take his silence for dismissal, and he gave Harrison a wide berth as he continued down the hallway.

“Wait,” Harrison called after him, making him jump. Harrison only had to consider a split second before he said, “come to our house for Thanksgiving.”

Hartley stared at him. “I . . . sorry?” he asked in confusion.

“It isn’t right that you should spend Thanksgiving alone,” Harrison shook his head, trying to make clear all the _other_ things that weren’t right as he said it. “It’ll just be Tess, Jesse and I this year-” like it was every year “-so, you should come.”

Hartley hesitated a moment, looking as shy and almost afraid as Harrison had ever seen him, but then he nodded.

“Alright Dr. Wells. if that would be acceptable to Dr. Morgan, I’ll be there.”

***

“Are you sure this a good idea?” Tess asked skeptically as Harrison pulled the rolls out of the oven.

“Positive,” he replied, glancing at the turkey. He was almost sure it was done, but the little thingy hadn’t popped up yet.

“I’ve received complaints about Hartley,” Tess reminded him, still mashing potatoes. “He has a personality clash with nearly the entire lab.”

“So this could be exactly what he needs,” Harrison pointed out. “Maybe he just needs a chance to . . . warm up to people.”

Tess raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Harrison grinned back at her. She rolled her eyes, and he straightened to place one hand gently on her arm and tow her toward the door to the dining room.

Already seated at the table were Jesse and Hartley, waiting on the rest of the food. They were chattering away about physics, the fourteen year old beaming and waving her arms and the twenty-four year old smiling fondly down at her.

“When have you ever seen Hartley like this?” Harrison inquired pointedly. “Better yet, when have you ever seen _Jesse_ like this?”

Tess frowned in concern. Being as precocious as Jesse was, fourteen and almost out of high school, Jesse didn’t have a lot of friends her own age, and like any good mother Tess was always worried about her daughter’s social well-being. With Hartley however she seemed right at home, talking to him as if they’d known each other for years, and Hartley seemed to be enjoying talking to her just as much.

“Alright,” she said, turning back to her husband. “That might have been a good call.”

Harrison beamed at her. “When do I ever make any other kind?”

“How many times have you blown up the garage exactly?” Tess wondered.

“Fine,” Harrison conceded, kissing her nose, “I’m not always right. That’s what I have you for, to be right when I’m wrong.”

Tess sighed and let Harrison fold her into his embrace. “Yes, well,” she said, “you were right about inviting him to dinner, but how do you propose we keep this little friendship going?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Harrison grinned. “We invite him to Christmas.”

***

Harrison waved and smiled encouragingly to the engineer he had just finished interviewing, a man so completely nondescript Harrison had already forgotten his name and most of his accomplishments. Once he had closed the door behind him however, Harrison’s face fell as he sank back into his chair, rubbing at the pounding in his temples.

A new position had opened up for a mechanical engineer, on Hartley’s team no less, and as was his usual way Harrison had insisted on conducting the interviews himself. All of the candidates, however, were so completely untalented that he knew Hartley would eat them alive, and they’d be gone within a week. Hartley might have lost most of his abrasive demeanor since becoming a regular guest in the Wells-Morgan house, fitting in much better with his colleagues and becoming much friendlier with new hires, but he still had very little tolerance for incompetence.

He needed someone more inspired. More intuitive. Someone with Hartley’s mental . . . spark.

The sound of laughter from outside the office drew Harrison out of his contemplation. He stood and went to the door, peering out to find Jesse and a boy who couldn’t be much older than her standing out in the hallway. They were talking over each other, their sentences fragmented by peals of laughter.

For a moment Harrison just stood there watching them, watching Jesse nearly double over with laughter. She looked so happy, happier than he’d seen her since she’d come back to the house after her first day of college with a tired smile and dejected eyes. What was more, she was laughing with someone who wasn’t Hartley.

Harrison cleared his throat, and immediately the boy stopped laughing and whirled to face him.

“Sir,” he said nervously.

Harrison held out a hand, and the boy shook it eagerly. He had long hair almost down to his shoulders, bright eyes and a warm smile. He seemed excited to be there, and a little bit awed by Harrison’s sudden appearance.

He was also wearing a blazer thrown over a t-shirt that read ‘Keep Calm and Hans Shot First.’

“Harrison Wells,” Harrison introduced himself, smiling in amusement at the t-shirt.

“Cisco Ramon,” the boy replied.

Harrison blinked. “You’re my two o’clock?” The boy couldn’t have been older than nineteen, and Harrison had assumed him one of Jesse’s classmates. What age had the file said?

Cisco looked a bit scared. “Yes, sir,” he said nervously.

Harrison recovered himself quickly, and gave Cisco a bright smile before ushering him into the office. As Cisco took a seat opposite the desk, Harrison opened his file again.

“What were you and Jesse chatting about?” he asked, scanning the document for Cisco’s age.

“Central City College,” Cisco told him. “She has the same Computer Science professor I had, and he’s the funniest guy.”

Harrison made a mental note to ask Jesse about him, and make sure he was tenured with the college.

“So,” he began, “you’re awfully accomplished for twenty years old.”

“It’s just education,” Cisco protested mildly, still smiling. “I haven’t had the chance to work on anything really important yet. That’s why I’m here.”

“Still,” Harrison laughed, “your parents must be proud.”

The shadow of something dark passed over Cisco’s face, but within a heartbeat he was back to smiling cheerfully. “I think they still prefer my brother,” he admitted.

Somehow his expression reminded Harrison forcibly of Hartley and his parents, and something deep in his chest began to whimper.

“Where on earth does he work?” Harrison tried to keep his tone light. “NASA?”

Cisco shrugged. “A sporting goods store.”

The thing deep in Harrison’s chest began to scream.

***

Tess stared at her computer screen, reading the profile of their newest hire. He had impeccable credentials, two Master’s degrees, and had interned at Mercury Labs the previous year. Harrison, who had conducted his interview, had made a note in his personnel file that he was “warm, quick-witted and exceedingly funny.”

He was also a mere twenty years old, and Hartley didn’t like him.

“Harrison,” she called as her husband entered their shared office with a spring in his step.

“Yes my love,” he said innocently. Doubtless he had noticed what she was looking at on the computer when he’d come in.

Tess turned the screen toward him anyway. “Care to explain this?”

“He’s one of the finest engineers I’ve ever met,” Harrison told her.

Tess raised an eyebrow, and Harrison held up his hands in supplication.

“I had a good feeling about him,” he admitted.

“Your ‘good feelings’ have dictated the last five hires,” Tess reminded him.

“And when have any of them let us down?” Harrison asked, arms spread wide.

Tess sighed, internally admitting that he had her there. Despite Harrison’s tendency to choose employees based on personality rather than credentials, he certainly had an eye for talent.

“He’s also not even old enough to drink,” she said at last.

“He’s old enough to have two Master’s degrees,” Harrison pointed out.

“Hartley doesn’t like him,” Tess argued. “He says he’s unprofessional.”

Harrison waved that away. “It’s just the way he dresses Tess,” he protested, “Hartley will get used to it.” He looked guiltily off to one side. “Especially after we invite him to dinner.”

Tess’s eyebrows climbed toward her hair. “Oh, is that what we’re doing?”

“He hit it off with Jesse,” Harrison explained. “She’s just starting college and he just graduated, and while he was waiting for the interview they got to talking about teachers and the campus and by the time I came out to call him in they were laughing like old friends.”

“We can’t adopt all of Jesse’s friends,” Tess argued. They had long since given up pretending that Hartley wasn’t one of the family.

“We can when their own families don’t deserve them,” Harrison said sourly.

Tess frowned. “What did this one do?”

“They play favorites with his brother,” Harrison replied immediately. “It’s _unfathomable_ Tess, he’s _brilliant_ -”

“What does his brother do?” Tess asked skeptically.

“Retail,” Harrison said as though anguished. “ _Retail._ It’s _insane!_ ”

Tess rubbed her eyes. As unfair as the situation sounded, the fact of the matter was that they didn’t have the whole story.

“Retail is a perfectly respectable profession,” she began. “Who are we to judge them-”

Harrison interrupted her. “Yes, but I went to their house-”

“You went to their house?” Tess demanded in alarm.

“I said I wanted a character reference,” Harrison dismissed his own inappropriate behavior, “and do you know what I saw? Their living room is _plastered_ with photos of the brother, but not a single one of Cisco.”

“Oh he’s ‘Cisco’ now?” Tess asked.

“He’s always been Cisco,” Harrison retorted, “and he’s coming to dinner, tonight and tomorrow.”

“And for how long after that?” Tess wanted to know.

“Until he gets tired of my cooking.”

***

“May I have your attention please,” called Harrison, looking out over the heads of departments that were gathered in the cortex.

Immediately all of them stopped chattering nervously to look at him intently. Harrison looked out over the collection of eager, anxious faces, wishing he had something reassuring to tell them. Most of them had guessed that the news wasn’t good, based on how he had the entire family gathered around him: Tess and Hartley on his right, Jesse and Cisco on his left.

“As some of you may have heard,” he began cautiously, “the army has been called into Central City to deal with . . . recent developments.”

Nobody needed to be told what ‘recent developments’ were. Six months ago, nearly nine months after the activation of the Particle Accelerator, people had begun emerging who could do impossible things. Teleportation, changing their appearance at will, lighting themselves on fire without burning to ashes, these metahumans had displayed a wide range of abilities and the list only grew with each passing day. Unfortunately, most of the metahumans chose to use their gifts to hurt others, and order was barely being maintained. The police were in over their heads, and it seemed the military would be picking up the slack.

“General Eiling,” Harrison continued, “the man who is to be put in charge of keeping the city safe, has asked for our help in developing technology to subdue and contain-”

“He wants us to make weapons,” one person piped up angrily, and his concerned was echoed by several others in the crowd.

“No,” Harrison said firmly, “STAR Labs never has been and never will be a weapons developer. Anything we make for them will be non-lethal, containment-oriented technology.”

The complaints died down, but there was still some dissatisfied murmuring.

“I promise you all,” Harrison assured them, “the goal of this research facility has never been to make the world more dangerous. With the help of the army we are going to keep Central City safe.”

The gathered scientists all shuffled nervously, looking around at each other to gauge the reactions of their fellows. None of them had any specific complaints, but they were all uneasy, and Harrison couldn’t exactly blame them.

They had good reason to be afraid.

“Well that could have gone better,” Harrison sighed as the five of them left the cortex to make their way back to the office.

“Are we really going to do this Dr. Wells?” Cisco asked a little despairingly.

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Hartley pointed out.

Jesse frowned. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Tess ushered them all into the office, then shut the door behind them. “It’s true,” she admitted, “we weren’t so much ‘asked’ as ‘strongly encouraged’.”

“Meaning we were ordered,” Hartley said waspishly.

“They can’t _force_ us to build tech for them,” Cisco insisted.

“Oh grow up Cisquito,” Hartley snapped. It was a testament to how frustrated he really was that he was snapping at Cisco, and worse, calling him ‘Cisquito’.

“Boys, please don’t argue,” Harrison rubbed his temples as he collapsed in his chair, Tess coming to stand beside him. “I can’t take the two of you bickering.”

Immediately both Cisco and Hartley went quiet, hanging their heads in apology.

Tess surveyed Hartley, Cisco and Jesse, standing lined up before Harrison’s desk. “We’re going to need the three of you to present a united front,” she said seriously. “If we let on that we’re being strong-armed there will be resignations, and we can’t afford to lose people now of all times.”

“What can we do?” Jesse wanted to know.

“Just keep being yourselves,” Tess smiled reassuringly. “Act like nothing is wrong. The military officials that are going to be here are just people who happen to be hanging around. They’re not anything to be worried about.”

The three of them nodded solemnly.

“Which is as good as telling us there _is_ something to be worried about,” Cisco whispered to the other two as they made their way out of the office.

“What are we supposed to do about it though?” Hartley asked. “Try to drive them out? They’re the _military_ , nothing we do is going to phase them.”

“What do you think we should do?” Cisco asked Jesse seriously.

Jesse thought for a moment. “Do what mom says,” she instructed at last. “Act like nothing is wrong, but try to work as slowly as possible. You two do the best, fastest work in the lab, so everyone will fall into step behind you. Drag your feet, screw up as many tests as you can, and don’t give them anything you don’t have to.”

“Got it,” the boys said in unison.

“One more thing,” Jesse continued before they could move off. “We have to be strong for mom and dad too, okay? We can’t let on that this is affecting us to them either.”

Cisco and Hartley looked at each other, then turned back to Jesse and nodded grimly.

***

“For the last performance of our Open Mic Night,” announced the owner of the bar, as Cisco pulled his guitar from its case and Hartley unfolded his collapsible keyboard, “Jesse, Hartley and Cisco singing-”

The man looked down at the slip of paper in his hand, frowning at it in confusion.

Jesse gently lifted the mic from his hand. “We’ll take it from here,” she said, to tumultuous applause.

Hartley began to play first, fingers flying deftly over the keys, before Cisco joined him. Both of them had microphones of their own, but Jesse was front and center, swaying with the beat as her two best friends backed her up.

“My baby's got his own way of talking,” she began, voice cheerful and bubbly as she sang the ridiculous song. “Whenever he says something sweet.”

“And he knows it's my world he's a-rockin',” Hartley joined her on the next line, singing into his mike even as he continued to play.

“Though my vocabulary's incomplete!” Cisco and Jesse sang together, followed by Cisco returning his attention to the guitar to play a short riff.

“I know it may sound confusing,” Jesse sang, and Hartley cooed into his mic in response. “Sometimes I wish he'd give it to me straight! But I never feel like I’m losing-”

“Losing!” Cisco echoed.

“When I take the time to translate!”

As the three of them launched into the nonsensical chorus Harrison wrapped his arms around Tess. They were sitting in a booth near the back, previously occupied by all five of them, but now that the three youngest were up on stage he was free to bury his nose in his wife’s hair as he watched his children thoroughly enjoy a pop song from a cartoon.

“Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!” Jesse concluded, then the three of them bowed as the rest of the bar erupted in cheers, applause and the occasional whistle.

“You did beautifully sweetie,” said Tess as Jesse ran directly into her mother’s arms.

“You two as well,” Harrison concurred as Hartley and Cisco made their way more sedately toward the booth, both of them with their bulky instrument cases on their backs.

Tess checked her watch. “We should get going,” she told them all in a subdued tone. “It’ll take an hour to get everyone home from here, and curfew is earlier now.”

A hush passed over the group. The metahuman crisis was getting worse, and Eiling was tightening his control over the city in a number of ways. He kept insisting that martial law had not and would not be declared, but he had such a smug look in every announcement that no one was particularly reassured.

Eventually Harrison grinned. “I’ve got an idea,” he announced, “why don’t Hartley and Cisco stay at the house tonight, and instead of driving all over the city getting everyone home we can stop for ice cream.”

“We’re not five dad,” Jesse reminded him, but she was grinning now. “You can’t cheer us up with ice cream.”

“Speak for yourself,” Cisco corrected as they all made their way outside. “My happiness and affection can _totally_ be bought with ice cream.”

Harrison laughed and, once they were out on the street, hooked one arm around Cisco’s neck and pulled him close. The other arm went around Hartley, and with Jesse pressed firmly against Tess’s side the five of them made their way toward the place where they’d parked giggling and leaning on each other.

Once they’d made it back to the house they finished their ice cream in front of the TV while they watched the movie Cisco had brought over for the occasion, but then the excitement of the evening began to catch up with them and everyone began drifting towards bed. Cisco and Hartley had long since staked claims on two of the house’s many guest rooms, so they simply fell into bed fully clothed after kicking their shoes off by the door. Jesse made her way toward her room yawning, and Tess and Harrison also began to get ready for bed.

“Oh,” Tess said suddenly, turning to her husband, “I forgot to put the garbage out.”

She made for the door, but Harrison pushed her gently back toward the bedroom. “I’ve got it,” he said, and kissed her soundly when she made to protest.

As Harrison dragged the trash cans down toward the street he breathed in the still, cool night air. They were a bit apart from the city, so the air was fresher, cleaner, and didn’t smell strongly of anything. He was barefoot, so the grass tickled the bottoms of his feet.

He was just turning to go back inside, when suddenly he caught sight of a man standing by the mailbox. He had blond hair, a pointed chin, and was staring up at the sky.

“Hello?” Harrison said hesitantly. The house was somewhat isolated, and there was no reason for a stranger to be so close.

“The stars really are much brighter in this time,” said the man, not looking at him. “It’s quite remarkable.”

Harrison blinked in confusion. “Can I help you?” he asked, a little perplexed. The man wasn’t making any sense.

“Actually you can,” said the man. He turned to look at Harrison with a weary smile, and Harrison smiled nervously back.

“With what?” he prompted, eager to go back inside to Tess, who was doubtlessly waiting for him.

“You see,” the man began walking slowly but steadily towards him, “you have something of mine, and I’d very much like it back.”

“What is it?” Harrison asked cautiously. The man was getting close to him now, so he backed up a few steps. Something about this man radiated power, and it made Harrison uncomfortable.

“Well, technically two things,” the man laughed, “one of which is very important to me, and one of which is just a convenience.”

“Don’t come any closer,” Harrison warned harshly. He stumbled back, then tripped over nothing and went sprawling backwards onto the soft ground.

“The first,” the man loomed over him, “is my Cisco.”

Instantly Harrison’s mind turned toward the house, where Cisco was almost definitely already asleep. What did this man want with him?

“Cisco doesn’t belong to anyone,” Harrison said defiantly, but none the less he found himself shuffling back from the man’s unbroken advance. “He’s not your-”

“The second,” the man interrupted him, lowering himself to crouch over Harrison’s prone form, “is the body that, before my . . . reduction, I had grown rather fond of.”

Before Harrison could cry out, for help or for Tess or for either of the boys, the man lunged. He fastened his hands tight around Harrison’s throat, pressing his thumbs into the windpipe and cutting off his air. Harrison choked, scrabbling at the hands that were throttling him, but the man swung his leg over to straddle Harrison’s chest. He kicked with his feet but it was no good; the man had all the leverage, and Harrison had none.

“I do apologize,” the man said, voice rough as blackness began to creep in at the edges of Harrison’s vision, “but I am going to get back what I lost, and in order for that to happen, this has to be done.”

 _Please_ , Harrison tried to say, _please, just don’t hurt Tess! Don’t hurt Jesse and the boys! Don’t take Cisco from them!_

But he couldn’t say it. He didn’t get the chance to say it. He didn’t get the chance to make another sound, just stare up into the eyes of his murderer in terror and despair. It had been a perfectly normal evening, full of ice cream and laughing, and now he was going to die here on the front lawn at the hand of a man who for all he knew was going to go into the house and finish off the rest of his family.

 _Please not them_ , Harrison prayed. _Just please, not-_

And then he was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I know what you’re going to say:
> 
> “What the fuck Sam! Hartley plays the fucking flute, you couldn’t have at least stuck to woodwind instruments?”
> 
> To which I will reply,
> 
> “If Hartley Rathaway can speak six languages he can learn to play more than one fucking instrument.”
> 
> And I will be right.


	3. The Girl Who Shouldn't Exist

“Bow-chicka-bow-wow, that’s what my baby said,” Cisco sang under his breath as he made his way through the halls of STAR Labs. Two days later and the song was still stuck in his head.

“Mow mow mow-”

“And my heart starts pumpin’,” finished a voice behind him. Cisco turned, to find Jesse just catching up to him.

“You!” Cisco exclaimed. “Did you watch the new Steven Universe that aired last night?”

“Nooo,” Jesse whined, “I had homework. Was it good?”

“It’s Steven Universe, it’s always good,” Cisco scoffed as Jesse fell into step beside him, “but I have to say, ‘Hit the Diamond’ was about as gay as children’s television gets.”

“Eee!” Jesse clapped, looking excited.

Cisco grinned. “What brings you here on this fine day? I thought you had class.”

“What?” said Jesse coyly, “seeing my two best friends isn’t enough?”

“Hartley’s working on something with Harrison,” Cisco reminded her. “I’ve got my own stuff to work on today, and like I said, you have class.”

“So I’ll go see them next,” Jesse shrugged.

Cisco raised an eyebrow.

“Okay so there’s this Science Fair,” Jesse began, “and I  _ really _ want to enter, but the thing is there’s a scholarship prize and-”

“Your mom doesn’t want you competing for those because you have money,” Cisco concluded.

Jesse nodded vigorously and hummed in agreement. “I’d give the prize to the runner-up, I just want to participate!”

“You want me to talk to her?” Cisco offered.

“Yes!” said Jesse eagerly. “You and Hartley. Would you?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Cisco said noncommittally, but Jesse immediately grabbed his arm and held him still so she could reach up and peck him on the cheek.

“Thanks!” she called, already running ahead of him. “You’re the best!”

“I know!” Cisco called after her, laughing, and she waved to him before disappearing around a corner.

Cisco resumed humming the chorus to ‘Gitchee Gitchee Goo’ as he continued on toward his workroom. He wanted to finish aligning the quantum helix before Tess came down to check on him after lunch, or this would be his third straight day of almost nothing to show for his efforts. It was a nice change of pace from working on yet more containment cells for the ‘facility’ where Eiling was holding the metas he’d captured, but Cisco didn’t want to seem like he was dragging it out on purpose.

When Cisco reached his workroom however, Harrison was waiting for him there.

“Oh,” said Cisco, surprised to see him, “hey.”

“Hello Cisco,” said Harrison smiling warmly. There was something . . .  _ off _ about his smile though, and Cisco frowned in concern.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, coming into the room and setting his bag on the table.

“Perfect,” Harrison told him, a note of deep satisfaction in his voice. Vaguely Cisco wondered what it was he had to be so satisfied about.

“I just thought you were working with Hartley today,” Cisco explained as Harrison strode casually towards the door.

“Was I?” Harrison said offhandedly, closing the door behind Cisco and then turning to face him. “Funny, I was planning on talking to you about something today.”

“About what?” Cisco asked curiously. Harrison had never really been one for closed doors, preferring to have a sense of openness in the lab. That he was shutting himself and Cisco inside the workroom meant that he wanted to have a serious,  _ private _ conversation.

Harrison began moving slowly towards him. “Have you been having any strange dreams lately?” he asked.

Cisco thought for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything. “No,” he concluded. “Why? Was I talking in my sleep or something?”

“No,” Harrison said. He was nearly in Cisco’s personal space now. “I was just wondering if perhaps you’ve been dreaming things that feel a little too . . . real.”

“Harrison?” Cisco asked as his mentor loomed over him. He was about to take a step back, but at that moment Harrison reached out and put his hand on Cisco’s shoulder.

Cisco sucked in a breath as the room around him went suddenly blue and shadowy. He was no longer in his workroom, but in Harrison’s office, with Harrison beside him and Hartley seated in a chair opposite the desk.

“You I trust,” Hartley said to Harrison, “I don’t foresee myself trusting someone-”

A scene seemed to play out in a fraction of a second, the words blurring together but his sense of the proceedings all too clear. Hartley didn’t know Cisco, they were meeting for the first time, but this wasn’t how they’d met at all. Cisco tried to open his mouth, say that this wasn’t right, but before he could speak suddenly he was in the cortex, with Hartley quizzing him on his basic engineering knowledge. A woman he didn’t recognize stepped in to try and defend him, but before Cisco could tell her that Hartley was just protective of the lab the scene changed again.

Dimly, Cisco could feel himself falling.

***

Jesse sat curled up in a hard plastic chair, staring at a bank of machines. They were currently the only things keeping her best friend -- her brother, if she was honest with herself -- alive. He was lying motionless on the hospital bed, his hair fanned out around his head, face slack and eyes closed.

He hadn’t opened his eyes in two days.

Hartley sat in an identical chair on the other side of the bed, one of Cisco’s hands clasped in his. He kept bringing it to his face, brushing it along his cheek or pressing it to his lips. Not for the first time Jesse considered that there might be more between Cisco and Hartley than brotherly affection, and she wondered if her presence was all that kept Hartley from openly kissing Cisco’s knuckles, from running trembling fingers through Cisco’s hair.

To think, two days ago she had been worried about a science fair. It all seemed so far away now, so unimportant. Her mother had tried to convince her to go back to school, but she couldn’t concentrate on anything but this. Her father had suggested bringing Cisco back to STAR Labs for better treatment, but the hospital needed his family’s consent, and for some reason the Ramons didn’t trust Jesse’s parents. There was nothing to do but wait.

“Hey,” said Hartley, interrupting Jesse’s thoughts. She looked up, to see him smiling weakly at her. “How are you holding up?”

Jesse shrugged. “I’m keeping it together.”

“Cisco would want you to be in school,” Hartley told her. “He wouldn’t want you to put your life on pause for him.”

“Then he can wake up and tell me that himself,” Jesse replied.

He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything the monitors around Cisco began beeping frantically. Cisco’s eyes didn’t open, but he began convulsing on the bed, hair flying as the seizure wracked his weakened body.

Hartley went to the door. “Can we get a doctor in here?” he demanded, even as several men and women in scrubs and lab coats came running. He and Jesse were quickly ousted from the room, and they stood in the hallway watching as the doctors struggled to stabilize Cisco.

“Another seizure,” observed Jesse’s father, materializing at her elbow.

“He won’t last through many more of these,” Hartley said, one part anxiety to two parts anger. “What’s happening to him?”

“All I did was touch him,” her father whispered, as though to himself. Then he turned and strode purposefully down the hallway.

“Where are you going?” Jesse called after him.

He didn’t turn around, but rather tossed his answer over his shoulder.

“To persuade Pilar Ramon to let me save her son’s life.”

***

Tess watched as Harrison supervised Cisco’s transfer to the special sickroom set up in STAR Labs. He had finally convinced the Ramon family to let him move Cisco to the lab to make use of their superior equipment, but he didn’t seem the slightest bit relieved. He looked on as the boy who had been like a son to him was lifted from the gurney and transferred onto the bed, hard-eyed and stony-faced.

“Harrison,” she said gently, putting a hand on his arm. He did not pull her into his embrace, as he usually did, but instead barely afforded her a halfhearted glance.

He didn’t answer her.

“What did you do?” she asked quietly.

Harrison turned his head to look at her more fully. “What do you mean?”

“How did you convince Pilar to let you move Cisco?” she asked.

“I told her the truth,” Harrison said testily, “that Cisco would likely die if she didn’t.”

“You don’t think that’s a bit harsh?” she wondered.

“Is it inaccurate?” he demanded, his tone hard. Tess pulled back, but he didn’t follow her.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, frowning in worry and confusion. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

Harrison sighed, then turned fully to her and pasted an utterly transparent smile onto his face.

“Cisco is like a son to me,” he began. “I know he is to you too. He means so much to both of us, surely you can understand my determination to see him well again.”

“That’s not fair,” she protested, “you know I love Cisco, what-”

Before she could finish however, both she and Harrison were distracted by some kind of commotion out in the hallway. Harrison immediately went to the door, Tess following close behind him, to find that two of the security guards that had been placed on the room were trying to quietly escort a tall, thin young man from the building.

“Dr. Wells!” he called when he saw Harrison. “Please, I need your help!”

“Get him out of here!” said Harrison angrily, and both the guards nodded, literally lifting the young man off his feet in an attempt to drag him away.

“No no no,” he protested, struggling. “You don’t understand, I can help you!”

“With what?” Tess asked.

“Don’t listen to him,” Harrison scoffed.

“The metahumans,” the man replied, addressing Tess now. She held up a hand, and the guards stopped trying to drag him away.

“What about them?” she inquired.

“You’re making technology for General Eiling,” he began, “because you think it’s the only way. I came to tell you it’s not, I have a better solution and I need your help to do it.”

Harrison took hold of her arm, his grip neither rough nor gentle. “You cannot be listening to this,” he said, looking condescendingly between Tess and the man still being held by the guards.

Tess bit her lip, thinking. If this boy really did have a solution to the metahuman crisis that didn’t involve making weapons for the military, then Harrison should have been all for it. Instead he was ready to dismiss the mere possibility completely out of hand, and it didn’t seem like him at all. She wanted to agree with her husband, but it didn’t feel like her husband was beside her.

“Let him go,” she ordered, even as Harrison scoffed.

Tess led the way to their office, Harrison sullen and silent on her right, the strange young man quiet and nervous on her left. He told her only that his name was Barry Allen, and that he wanted to save the rest for somewhere more private. When they reached the office Tess closed the door, but not before Harrison motioned for the two security guards to stay nearby.

“So,” said Tess, folding her arms and leaning against her desk. “What, Mr. Allen, is your solution to the metahuman crisis?”

“Another metahuman,” said Barry immediately.

“And how will that help?” Harrison protested, pacing back and forth in agitation.

“One that’s on our side,” Barry continued as though Harrison hadn’t spoken. He seemed to have singled out Tess as the reasonable one, and was now speaking directly to her. “Someone who can fight fire with fire, match metahuman power against metahuman power and do the things that the police can’t.”

“And where do you propose we find such a metahuman?” Tess wanted to know. “All the ones we’ve encountered have been hostile, not exactly interested in heroics.”

The ghost of a smile flashed across Barry’s face. “I already have someone in mind,” he said simply.

“And how do you know this will work?” Harrison demanded, still pacing.

Here Barry’s face took on a look of trepidation. He closed his eyes as though bracing himself for something, then opened them to look plaintively at Tess.

“Because I came from an alternate timeline where I was the heroic metahuman, but I went back in time to change the past and in doing so lost my powers?”

“An alternate timeline,” Harrison repeated incredulously, then turned immediately to Tess. “This is pure fantasy, you cannot actually be entertaining this!”

“After every impossible thing that’s happened over the last two years, is alternate timelines really where you draw the line?” Barry questioned.

“Tess!” Harrison interjected.

Tess blatantly ignored him. “Do you have any kind of proof that what you’re saying is true?” she asked Barry.

Barry sucked in air through his teeth. “No,” he admitted, “but I know someone who might. You have someone employed here, his name is Cisco Ramon. Do you trust him?”

Tess and Harrison looked at each other, then back at Barry. “What do you know about Cisco?” Tess inquired, without giving anything away.

“Where I came from he was a metahuman,” Barry explained. “His power was to see across timelines, among a few other things. If I’m right, and he still has his power, he can verify everything I just said and a lot more.”

Barry looked pleadingly at Tess. “If you’re willing to believe him.”

“Cisco’s in a coma,” Tess informed him, unable to keep the hardness out of her voice. “For the last two days he’s been unconscious and had the occasional seizure.”

Barry looked nothing short of heartbroken. “No,” he whispered, clutching at his own hair. “Cisco? It can’t be, no, I can’t lose him too!”

He began to pace frantically around the room. “This can’t be,” he said, over and over, “first Joe, then Iris, now Cisco? It can’t be!”

“It is,” said Tess, trying for gentle but only managing to sound brusque. “You should-”

“Let me see him,” Barry interrupted, turning to her in desperation. “I might be able to wake him up.”

Hope flared, bright and almost painful, in Tess’s heart. “How?” she demanded, her arms slipping from their defensive pose.

“I once woke a girl up from a coma using my powers,” Barry told her. “I don’t know how I did it, but if there is even a drop of power left in me, I can wake him up.”

He took a step back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Or I can’t, and I’m crazy.”

Tess looked at Harrison again, and he shook his head ever so slightly. A denial. A refusal. He knew what she was about to do.

She turned back to Barry. “I’ll take you to him.”

***

Jesse looked up when the door to Cisco’s sickroom opened. It was one of the few doors in STAR Labs that remained closed most of the time, so Jesse only expected two people to be coming through it. Her parents did indeed enter, her mother looking determined and her father almost angry, but once they were inside another man that Jesse didn’t recognize followed after them. He wasn’t wearing a lab coat or scrubs, so he probably wasn’t a doctor, but then Jesse couldn’t think of another reason for him to be there. Behind him came a security guard, and Jesse could see another one taking up position outside.

“Cisco!” the man exclaimed, running immediately to the bed.

Hartley jumped up from his chair and stood in the man’s way. “Who are you?” he demanded, glaring.

“Just, let me-” the man made to brush past Hartley, but Hartley grabbed him by the shoulders and, despite his shorter stature, managed to hold the stranger back.

“Hartley,” Jesse’s mother said, her voice cutting through the kerfuffle. “Let him pass.”

Hartley glared, but let the man go.

Thus assured that he would be allowed access to Cisco, the man straightened his clothes and approached the bed more slowly. He clamped one hand over his mouth as though to hold back a scream, and Jesse could see in his eyes that he was fighting tears.

Eventually he managed to get control of himself enough that he could reach out and touch Cisco’s hand. As Jesse watched their fingers touch she swore that she could see a spark, almost like static electricity but bigger and brighter, pass from the stranger’s hand into Cisco’s.

Cisco’s eyes opened.

“Oh my god!” Jesse cried, throwing herself on him, and for the first time in two days her brother’s arms came up to wrap around her.

“Hey boss bug,” he said weakly into her hair, and Jesse laughed at the use of her old nickname, from the days when Cisco had just been getting used to being friends with his boss’s daughter.

“Cisco?” Hartley asked shakily when Jesse drew away.

“I’m here,” Cisco reached out for him, and Hartley took both of Cisco’s hands in his.

“You scared the hell out of us,” Hartley admitted.

“Sorry,” Cisco replied, smiling. Hartley let go of Cisco’s hands, and he used them to push himself upright to face Tess and Harrison.

“Welcome back Mr. Ramon,” Jesse’s mother smiled, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve.

“It’s good to be back,” Cisco replied, “even if I am a little sore.”

“That would be from the fall,” piped up Jesse’s father. “You took quite a tumble when you collapsed, and I wasn’t fast enough to catch you.”

Cisco frowned at him a moment, as though trying to puzzle him out, and Jesse looked back and forth between her father and brother nervously. Her father looked happy to see Cisco conscious again, but Cisco did not seem particularly happy to see her father.

“Just a minute,” Cisco said, then swung his legs over the side of the bed. He stumbled a bit standing up, pulling off electrodes as he went, but was eventually able to walk to the door, where the security guard was stationed. 

It seemed at first as though Cisco had stumbled again, as he fell forward and grabbed the guard for support. The guard caught him easily and set him on his feet, and Cisco smiled gratefully before turning around.

Then he raised the gun he had stolen and pointed it at Jesse’s father.

“Cisco!” Jesse screamed, even as he moved so that his back was to the bank of monitors and not the guard, keeping the gun trained on the man who’d been like a father to him for nearly four years all the while.

“Cisco what the hell?” Hartley demanded, coming forward, but Cisco’s turned the gun on him and he backed away, hands in the air.

“Put the gun down,” Jesse’s mother said, in her most commanding voice.

But Cisco did not put the gun down. He returned his hard, murderous glare to Jesse’s father and pointed the gun at him once more. Her father didn’t put his hands up, or even move at all, just met Cisco’s savage gaze with his own impassive one.

“That isn’t Harrison,” Cisco said to the room at large. “That’s the man who killed him. His name is Eobard Thawne, and-”

“Cisco, no,” the stranger said, displaying his palms as he edged carefully closer to Cisco. “You’ve got this wrong. He was Thawne in the other timeline, but in this one-”

“You don’t know what I saw Barry,” Cisco cut him off. The man -- Barry -- looked anguished.

Finally, Jesse’s father spoke. “Cisco,” he began, his voice as soft and gentle and comforting as Jesse had ever heard it.

Cisco fired.

As though from outside her own body, Jesse heard herself scream. She heard Hartley yell, and Barry cry out Cisco’s name. She was watching her father, waiting for him to reel back from the impact of being shot in the chest, waiting for him to fall to the ground broken and bleeding. He didn’t reel back though. Instead there was a flash of red lightning, and then her father’s hand was fisted just in front of his chest.

He was fine.

Jesse’s father sighed deeply, then uncurled his fingers. The two bullets that Cisco had shot him with fell uselessly to the ground.

“Harrison?” Jesse’s mother breathed in horror and confusion.

Jesse’s father ignored her. “I forget sometimes,” he said placidly, looking at Cisco, “how powerful you really are.”

The red lightning flashed again, and this time he didn’t just move a single limb. In the blink of an eye he was all the way across the room, standing behind Jesse. He wrapped one arm around her, gripping her tightly with one hand, and held the other a few inches from her temple. Suddenly his free hand began to hum, vibrating impossibly back and forth until it reminded her of nothing so much as a buzz saw.

“Daddy?” she asked, voice high and afraid.

“Drop the gun,” he instructed. Immediately Cisco released the weapon and it clattered to the floor.

“Let her go Thawne,” Barry ordered angrily, but it was clear he had nothing, and he went completely ignored.

Jesse whimpered. Her father’s grip on her was tight, nothing like the gentle embrace that she was used to, and despite the improbability of it she knew that the hand hovering over her head would kill her if her captor so desired. Her captor? Her father. He  _ had  _ to be her father; he looked like her father, he talked like her father, but he wasn’t  _ acting _ like her father.

“You’re going to come with me,” the man who both was and wasn’t her father told Cisco, “or I’m going to kill her, right here and now.”

No. This man was not her father. He was who Cisco said he was, this impostor Eobard Thawne. Cisco said he had killed her father. If he was right about this man’s true nature, then that meant-

Her father was dead.

Jesse sobbed.

“I won’t help you,” Cisco retorted.

“Not even to save her life?” Thawne challenged.

Cisco hesitated, looking at Jesse with a pained expression.

“Fine,” Thawne said, and drew back his hand to strike at Jesse’s head.

“No!” screamed Cisco, reaching out a hand towards Jesse. There was a strange whooshing noise, like something moving swiftly through the air, and from Cisco’s palm emanated a blast of some kind of energy, unlike anything Jesse had ever seen before.

Red lightning flashed all around her, and suddenly Jesse was a few feet to the left of where she had been, well out of the way of the blast. Thawne growled angrily, then suddenly he released Jesse and pushed her bodily at Cisco. Cisco caught her easily, but in a Flash of red lightning the man who had killed Jesse’s father was gone.

***

It took some time to gather everyone into the cortex. First the place had to be emptied out of all other employees, none of whom would understand what had happened without seeing it with their own eyes. Then Hartley, Jesse and her mother needed time to process what they  _ had _ seen with their own eyes, reconciling themselves to the facts that were now laid out before them.

Harrison Wells was dead. The man who had killed him, an evil time-traveler from the future who also happened to be able to move faster than the speed of light, had stolen his form and was now running around wearing his face. Cisco was a metahuman, who could fire vibration blasts from his hands and, apparently, see across alternate timelines. Barry had come from one such timeline, and had changed the past to create the timeline in which they were all living.

“The only reason Eiling was able to basically take over the city was because I wasn’t here,” Barry explained. “Cisco and I and-” he paused, looking pained, “-a few other people kept the city safe, back in our timeline.” 

“In the other timeline,” Cisco corrected. He seemed to know Barry, and was backing up everything that he said, but he still seemed wary of him and had placed himself squarely between Hartley and Jesse’s mother, not at Barry’s side.

“Right,” said Barry, frowning in confusion, then turned his attention back to Jesse’s mother. “I know you don’t like Eiling being in control of the city,” he told her. “If you help me get my powers back I can take the city back from him. I can keep everyone safe.”

“In your timeline Eiling never gained the foothold he has,” Jesse’s mother pointed out. “How do you know this will work?”

“I don’t,” Barry admitted, “but it’s worth a try. Plus, I’m the only one who can beat the Reverse-Flash.”

“That’s Thawne,” Cisco interjected dully. “It’s what he calls himself.”

Jesse’s mother nodded her understanding.

“Why did he do it?” Jesse asked suddenly, causing the entire room to turn to her. “Why did he kill my dad?”

Barry looked down. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “He killed Dr. Wells and took his place in the other timeline too, but that was only to make sure I got my powers. He needed them for something,” Barry went on at Jesse’s questioning look, “but it’s hard to explain. He didn’t seem to want me around this time though, so there might be another reason.”

“So this is all about you?” Jesse asked. Some part of her knew it was irrational, but anger was welling up inside her, and it needed somewhere to go. Thawne wasn’t in front of her, but Barry was, and all roads seemed to lead back to him.

Her mother, however, left Cisco standing beside Hartley and went to stand behind the chair where Jesse was curled up. She placed a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, squeezing, and Jesse placed her hand over her mother’s and squeezed back. She was right. This was no time for misplaced anger.

Barry looked suitably apologetic, lowering his head. “Yes,” he said quietly, “it’s about me.”

“What do you need from us?” Jesse’s mother asked.

“The particle accelerator,” Barry began, “it created the metahumans. I need access to is so I can-”

“The particle accelerator did not create the metas,” Jesse snapped. “How could it have done that?”

“It’s true,” Cisco interrupted. Jesse turned to him, to his weary expression and vacant eyes. “In the other timeline it exploded,” he explained, “but it can also leak dark matter radiation quietly over the city. Trust me, he’s telling the truth.”

Jesse’s mother buried her head in her hands.

“It’s not your fault,” Barry said comfortingly. “You didn’t know.”

“I should have-” she began.

“But you didn’t,” Barry said firmly. She wiped her eyes and nodded.

“What now then?” Hartley asked no one in particular.

“Now,” Barry said, “you expose me to the dark matter radiation and electrocute me so that I can get my powers back and save Central City.”

“What.” Jesse said flatly.

“No, really,” Cisco told her, “that’s how it’s done.”

Jesse’s mother considered for a moment. “That will take some time,” she concluded. “We’ll have to conduct the necessary calculations. It will be dangerous.”

“I’m not scared,” Barry told her, “I’ve done this before-”

“You won’t be the only one in danger, Mr. Allen,” she said. She glanced around the room, at Jesse and Hartley and Cisco. “Are we all prepared to do this?”

“I am,” said Hartley immediately.

“Me too,” Jesse concurred.

All eyes turned to Cisco. He sighed, then nodded his assent. 

She went to the door, where a security guard was waiting outside.

“Evacuate the building,” she instructed. “Only the people in this room will stay behind.”

“But Dr. Morgan-” he tried, looking horrified, but Tess gave him a wry smile.

“We’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Evacuate.”

***

As her mother oversaw the evacuation, Jesse helped Hartley and Cisco with the calculations. The cortex being empty they were able to spread out and cover an entire bank of computers between them, while Barry stood uselessly off to one side. Eventually he went to assist in the evacuation as well, leaving the three of them alone.

Jesse let herself get lost in the math. It was easier than thinking about everything else that had happened today, or what was going to happen before the day was over. Anything was easier than thinking about her father, even trying to wrap her head around the fact that she was living in an alternate timeline. Not for the first time she wondered what her life had been like in the other timeline, how she had dealt with her father’s death then.

Cisco leaned over her to grab a tablet on her other side, and as he did so his arm brushed against her shoulder. He glanced at her apologetically, then winced and recoiled, dropping the tablet into her lap.

“Alright,” said Hartley suddenly, standing up. “Out with it.”

“Out with what?” Cisco asked, looking down.

“Whatever it is you’re thinking,” Hartley demanded. “You’ve been weird ever since Barry got here: you barely speak, you won’t look at me and you’ve got this dead look in your eyes. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing,” Cisco said, as though on reflex.

“Liar,” Hartley accused. “Tell me what-”

“You don’t get it!” Cisco snapped, his eyes finally settling on Hartley’s face, but narrowed in an icy glare. Then he paused, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“You don’t understand,” he said more gently. “When I was in that coma, I was reabsorbing the memories from the alternate timeline, the one that Barry changed to create this one. I have the memories of a whole other life layered over the memories of this one, and I can’t look at you without seeing the other you too.”

Hartley frowned. “The other me,” he hesitated, then, “what was I like?”

“He was different than you,” Cisco told him. “He was . . . he was mentored by Thawne, not Harrison or Tess. He hurt people. Me included.”

“Oh Cisco,” Hartley breathed, looking heartbroken. Immediately he walked directly into Cisco’s space and took the younger man’s face in his hands. “I would never hurt you,” he insisted.

“I know,” Cisco nodded, eyes closed, “I know, but I just . . . I can’t unsee it.”

For a moment Hartley and Cisco just stood there. Cisco took hold of Hartley’s wrists and the two of them just held each other, and Jesse was reminded of her theory that these two were a little more than friends, or at least that they might one day be. Then Hartley stepped away, forcing a smile.

“We’ll build new memories,” he promised. “They’ll wash the old ones away.”

Cisco nodded.

“What about me?” Jesse asked quietly, drawing both their attention. “What was I like, in the other timeline?”

To her surprise Cisco’s face took on an expression of deep, piercing sorrow. “I . . . I-” he stuttered.

“Cisco,” Jesse pressed, “who was I?”

“You . . . you weren’t,” Cisco confessed. “Thawne killed Harrison much earlier in his life, a long time before I met him. He killed Tess too, and you . . . you were never born.”

Jesse looked down. That . . . that certainly answered her question. She hadn’t been able to cope with her father’s death. He’d never been her father to begin with.

“Hey,” Hartley interrupted her thoughts, going over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got to finish this, okay?”

Jesse smiled weakly, then nodded.

***

Barry stood in the hallway leading up to the pipeline, as he had so many times before. He wasn’t wearing his flash suit this time, as Cisco hadn’t made it in this timeline, but he trusted that he would have it again soon. Cisco would come through for him, like he always did.

He did have his earpiece though.

“I’ve set the particle accelerator to the precise speed to generate a sufficient but non-lethal level of radiation,” Dr. Morgan said in his ear. “The rest of it’s up to you.

Barry looked down at the car battery at his feet, then picked up the two jump cables.

“Ready,” he said.

Slowly, very slowly, the blast door began to open.

***

“Did it work?” Jesse asked, peering over her mother’s shoulder as the sensors registered that the blast door had successfully closed. The four of them were sealed in the cortex, well away from the blast, and the building was otherwise empty.

“One way to find out,” Cisco speculated, then turned towards the door. He keyed in the code to open it from the inside, then stepped out into the hallway.

Almost immediately he was overtaken by a streak of yellow lighting, which swept him back into the cortex then came to a stop framed in the doorway.

“Somebody order a speedster?” Barry asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Jesse’s mother breathed a sigh of relief. “Well done you three,” she said, ruffling Hartley and Jesse’s hair.

“So,” Cisco stuck his hands in his pockets. “What’s our next move?”

“Your next move,” said a voice from over their heads, startling all five of them, “is to hand over those two metahumans you have up there.”

“Eiling?” Jesse’s mother called in confusion, and suddenly every screen fastened to the walls lit up with the image of Eiling’s face. He seemed to be standing outside the main entrance to STAR Labs, and several lines of soldiers were visible behind him.

“Tess Morgan,” Eiling said, tone radiating smug satisfaction, “you are hereby ordered to hand control of this lab over to the US Military, and report for duty at the new weapons development facility we are establishing here.”

“You can’t do that!” Jesse insisted. “You can’t just-”

“I think you’ll find I can,” Eiling replied. “Martial Law has been declared in Central City, and I have the authority to repurpose civilian laboratories, factories and any other necessary facilities to develop and manufacture the technology to combat this threat. You Dr. Morgan, and your husband, are being drafted into service by the US Government as weapons developers.”

“This lab does not make weapons,” Jesse’s mother said firmly, glaring at him even though he couldn’t see her.

“It does now,” Eiling corrected. “What it does not do is harbor metahumans, so you’re going to hand the two that are up there with you over to the proper authorities.”

“They’ve done nothing wrong,” Hartley countered.

“No,” Eiling admitted, “but their powers are very interesting.”

“I knew it,” Jesse’s mother hissed. “I knew you weren’t just holding those metas. You’ve been doing experiments on them!”

“What are you going to do about it?” Eiling asked patronizingly. “I’m holding all the cards here Dr. Morgan, so open up this door or we break it down.”

“You’re going to have to break it,” she snarled.

“If you insist,” Eiling replied, then turned to the soldier beside him. “When we get inside take the girl too,” he instructed, clearly meaning for them all to hear. “We may need leverage if her parents refuse to cooperate.”

With that, the screens went dark.

Jesse turned to her mother. “What are we going to do?” she asked anxiously. She couldn’t imagine letting a man like Eiling get ahold of her brother, but there was no way out. Eiling would have the lab surrounded, and they were cut off from any help that might possibly come, from their security or anyone else who worked there. In sending everyone away, they had left themselves vulnerable.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, pulling Jesse into her arms. “I don’t know sweetie.”

“You have to get Jesse out of here,” Hartley told Barry. “You have to get her somewhere safe. The rest of us can-”

“No,” Barry interrupted, then looked at Cisco. “We have to fix the timeline.”

“No way!” Cisco said immediately, shaking his head. “We can’t! You can’t just-”

“It’s the only way,” Barry countered. “This timeline, it’s too damaged. Too many things have gone wrong. Iris-” he cut himself off, a faint blush coloring his cheeks.

Cisco glared. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he spat. “This is about Iris?”

“She’s with Eddie!” Barry complained. “She  _ married _ him Cisco!”

Cisco threw up his hands and turned away.

“Hey, I’m sacrificing my mom here,” Barry insisted, grabbing Cisco’s shoulder to turn him around.

“No, you’re sacrificing  _ my _ mom!” Cisco spat. “If we put the timeline back the way it was, Tess will die! Jesse will never have existed!”

“What?” Jesse’s mother breathed. 

Cisco turned to her, an anguished expression on his face. “It’s true,” he said. “In the other timeline, Thawne killed and replaced Harrison before Jesse was born. He killed you, and she never existed.”

He turned back to Barry. “We cannot go back to that timeline,” he insisted. “You may have been willing to throw away everything that we did, but I built a  _ life _ for myself here! They are my family, and I’m not going to let you just erase them!”

“Cisco,” Barry took hold of him by the shoulders, “it’s the only way-”

“Find another way!” Cisco snarled, shoving roughly out of Barry’s grip.

Barry sighed. “Cisco-”

“Do it,” came a voice from behind them. All four of them turned, to see Jesse’s mother with a hard, determined look in her eyes.

“Do it,” she repeated. “Set the timeline right.”

“Look, this is not set in stone,” Cisco tried to tell her. “It was changed before, Thawne-”

“That timeline was better than this one,” she said. “Eiling didn’t have this authority over the city. It had a hero to protect it.”

Cisco dashed tears from his eyes with one hand. “Tess,” he said shakily.

Jesse’s mother -- his mother -- walked over to him and put her arms around him. “He’s right,” she whispered against his hair. “It’s the only way, Cisco.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” he argued.

“I don’t want to die,” she laughed bitterly. “But we all do things we don’t want to, because they’re right.”

Cisco stepped out of her embrace, then turned to Jesse.

“You won’t have ever existed,” he sobbed. “I’ll never meet you. You’ll never get to live this amazing life you’ve had.”

“But I did,” Jesse assured him, coming over and taking his hand. “I lived a great life, with a mom and a dad and two wonderful brothers.”

Cisco pulled her into his arms, and they held each other for what felt like an eternity and not nearly long enough. She was afraid, but she knew Cisco needed this. If her mother thought fixing the timeline was what needed to be done, then she would give Cisco whatever he needed to do it.

Barry cleared his throat. “I think I have a solution,” he said.

Cisco rubbed at the tears on his face. “What?” he asked.

“If I carry someone with me when I time travel,” he said, “I might be able to make them part of the paradox.”

“Like a time remnant,” Cisco speculated.

Barry nodded. “But,” he said, “I can only carry one person.”

Jesse’s mother glanced at her, then stepped back. “Take Jesse,” she instructed.

“Mom!” Jesse protested, but her mother held up a hand.

“I’d count myself a terrible person if I put my own life ahead of the lives of my children,” she said. She reached out and pulled Jesse to her. “I’ve had a good life with you, my Jesse Quick. Now it’s time for you to go live your life somewhere else. Go. Survive. Live.”

Jesse clung tightly to her mother. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to lose both her parents in one day. It didn’t seem like the universe cared what she wanted though, and for the first time in her life Jesse felt impossibly small.

She stepped back, and wiped at her eyes with one hand. “Okay,” she said simply.

Her mother smiled sadly. “I love you,” she said.

“I love you too,” Jesse replied.

Hartley hugged her next, putting a hand on her shoulder first, then giving up and pulling her close. “I know why I was such a jerk in that timeline,” he said, “if I didn’t have you.”

“I’ll find you,” Jesse assured him. “I’ll make you less of a jerk.”

Hartley laughed as he pulled away. He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, then let her go. Barry approached her and held out a hand, and when she took it he pulled her up and into his arms, clutching her bridal style.

“I’ll be waiting for you on the other side,” Cisco told her.

“Promise you’ll remember me?” Jesse asked.

Cisco grinned. “As if I could forget you.”

Jesse laughed, the sound forced out of her like a punch to the stomach, and she put her arms around Barry’s neck.

“Okay,” she said, eyes locked on Cisco. “I’m ready.”

Barry ran.

***

As Tess watched a metahuman vanish with her daughter in a flash of lightning, she wanted to do nothing more than cry. She didn’t know what would happen to her now, or to Jesse. She didn’t know what would happen to her boys. It all seemed incredibly final.

“What-” Hartley began, but suddenly there was a loud  _ BANG _ and the sound of boots out in the hallway.

“They’re inside,” Cisco realized. Both he and Hartley went to stand protectively in front of Tess.

Tess, however, put one hand on Cisco’s shoulder and the other on Hartley’s. They turned to her, and when she pulled them close they both wrapped their arms around her.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop this,” Cisco whispered.

“It’s not your fault,” she replied, burying her nose in his soft hair. “You’ll take care of Jesse?”

“With everything I have,” Cisco promised.

“I’d say the same,” said Hartley bitterly, “but I won’t remember her.”

“I’ll find a way to make you remember,” Cisco told him stoutly. “I’ll figure something out.”

“If you do remember,” Tess said quietly, even as pounding began on the sealed cortex door, “remember this. You are my sons. You were Harrison’s sons. And neither of us could be more proud of you.”

The door to the cortex burst open.

***

Being inside the speed force was as terrifying and liberating as Barry remembered it. He’d never gone with a passenger before, and he wasn’t quite sure what the effect would be on Jesse, but she didn’t disintegrate in his grasp so he supposed his plan was working. He concentrated hard on when he wanted to go, and ran.

He emerged onto the street outside his house, still clutching Jesse to his chest. He could see the red and yellow lightning through the front window, which meant he only had a few moments. He set Jesse down on the pavement.

“Where are we?” Jesse wanted to know. She sounded scared, and Barry couldn’t blame her.

“The worst night of my life,” Barry replied.

Suddenly another portal opened in front of them, and out of it emerged another Barry. He stopped, looking around to get his bearings, and caught sight of them.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Is that Jesse Wells?”

Barry sighed, wishing he didn’t have to do this. “I came to stop you,” he said simply. “This is a bad idea and you know it.”

“How bad can it be?” the other Barry whined.

“Iris married Eddie,” Barry said simply.

His temporal clone pulled a face. “Really?” he asked.

“Really,” Barry said. “Also Eiling took over the city, and Cisco and Caitlin never met. He’s best friends with Hartley. It’s bad.”

The other Barry sighed. “Fine,” he said, and with that one word he abruptly faded out of existence.

Jesse gave a little shriek beside him. “What happened?” she demanded.

“I stopped the timeline where he originated from happening,” Barry explained, “so he couldn’t exist.”

“Is that going to happen to me?” Jesse asked, eyeing the empty space where the other Barry had been fearfully.

“I’m not sure,” Barry admitted. “I think you’re part of the paradox now, so that makes you a time remnant. You’ve become disconnected from your timeline, so even though it was erased, you won’t be.”

Barry paused for a moment. “Does that make sense?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” Jesse replied. “Although I’m still not certain I won’t disappear.”

He turned to her, holding out his hand. “I guess we’re going to find out huh?”

Jesse hesitated, but in the end let Barry pick her up again. Wondering what exactly he’d gotten himself into, Barry ran.

***

Coming straight back to the cortex when she’d just been there not five minutes ago was a bit strange for Jesse. It felt like she should be somewhere else, in some kind of alternate universe where everything was different. Instead she was very clearly in STAR Labs, the place where she’d practically grown up.

As she looked around though, she could see that her surroundings weren’t entirely familiar. The cortex didn’t have a door, for one thing, just an empty archway. There was an alcove with an empty mannequin on one wall, which most certainly hadn’t been there before. There was also what appeared to be some kind of make-shift hospital room, like the sickroom that had been set up for Cisco when he was in his coma, off to one side. A dozen little touches reminded her that, even though this looked like STAR Labs, it was not  _ her _ STAR Labs.

It was surreal.

Suddenly a woman that Jesse didn’t recognize came hurrying out of the sickroom.

“Barry!” she called, running up to him. “Thank god!”

“What happened?” Barry asked, frowning at her pained expression.

“It’s Cisco,” she said simply, “he’s collapsed. I don’t know what caused it, I-”

Immediately Barry sped into the sickroom, leaving Jesse and the woman behind. The woman blinked at her in surprise.

“Jesse?” she asked.

Jesse didn’t waste time wondering how not one but two people from a timeline where she supposedly didn’t exist had recognized her on sight. She followed right behind Barry, and found herself in a room full of monitors, an IV pole, and a hospital bed. Lying in the bed was Cisco, looking exactly as he had when he’d been in the coma before: motionless, and with eyes closed.

“No!” Jesse cried, throwing herself onto Cisco. He couldn’t do this! He couldn’t leave her alone like this! Tears prickled in her eyes and she let them fall, kneeling beside the bed as she sobbed into the sheets. Her hand sought his and clutched it tight,  _ willing _ him to wake up.

Suddenly she felt a pressure on the top of her head, and looked up to see that Cisco’s other hand was stroking her hair. He had lifted his head a little to look at her, and his eyes were open.

“Hey boss bug,” he said weakly.

Dashing her tears aside, Jesse laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just in case it wasn't clear, eiling knew about barry and cisco being metas because he had spies among the star labs security guards.


	4. Everything Changes

The house in which Eobard Thawne had lived -- while he’d been alive -- was in the same place where the Wells-Morgan house had been in Jesse’s timeline. It had the same address, same gravel path, same slightly overgrown lawn, and from the outside looked much the same. The interior, however, was as foreign to Jesse as the surface of Mars. Inside the house was a monstrosity of glass and stone, without a single trace of warmth or comfort. Her mother’s colorful decorations were absent, her father’s fondness for plush furniture nowhere to be seen. Clearly Thawne had expensive taste, but not much of a personal touch.

The most jarring loss, however, were the photos. Her own home had been absolutely plastered with photos of her and her family, at all stages of her life, from baby pictures to graduation photos. More recently there had been pictures of Cisco and Hartley, having fun with her or posing with one of her parents to commemorate a professional achievement. There had even been pictures of their college graduations, taken quietly from family homes where they wouldn’t be missed.

This house, however, had no photos, and that wasn’t something she could fix with a trip to a furniture store. Those photos were gone, forever. She didn’t even have a single picture of her parents.

“We’ll spruce it up,” Cisco assured her as they carried the first few boxes of his things from the van. “Wellsobard left Barry pretty much everything, so there’s plenty of money to remodel. We’ll get new furniture, and-”

“Cisco,” Jesse cut him off gently, placing her box on the floor by the long rectangular fireplace. “I know this isn’t my house.”

“It _is_ your house though,” Cisco protested, setting his box next to hers. “I mean, it’s not your _house_ , but it’s _your_ house, or at least it is now. Barry’s giving it to you.”

“That’s nice of him,” Jesse noted.

Cisco scoffed. “It’s the _least_ he could do.”

As they both turned back towards the door suddenly a rush of air sped past them, and in a storm of yellow lightning suddenly all the boxes from the van were piled in the front entryway. Barry stood back, grinning broadly.

“Hey guys,” he waved. “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” said Cisco shortly.

“Thanks!” said Jesse excitedly. “Wow, superspeed comes in handy doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Barry replied, “it makes a lot of things easier. I get to sleep in til like five minutes before work because it takes me no time to get ready.”

“And yet you’re still always late,” Cisco remarked.

Barry glanced at Cisco, his smile faltering. “I, uh,” he cleared his throat, “probably shouldn’t be using my powers for that anyway. I’ve lost them a few times before, and it’s a bad habit to get into.”

“Well, thanks for using it for this,” Jesse said, causing Barry’s smile to return in full force. “And for giving us the house. We really appreciate it.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Barry echoed Cisco’s earlier sentiments. “You know, after I . . .” he trailed off, looking down.

“We got it from here,” Cisco informed him, picking up a box and turning to walk deeper into the house.

“Wait!” Barry called, holding out a hand.

Cisco paused and turned, frowning. “What now?” he asked testily.

Barry looked down, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck. “Uh,” he stalled, “I, uh, wanted to ask you something.”

Cisco raised an eyebrow, as much prompting to go on as Barry was going to get. Jesse frowned at him, and Cisco sighed.

“Which was?” he asked more gently.

Barry gave a nervous smile. “Well, Iris has been kind of mad at me, since-” he paused, then cleared his throat, “-well, you know, and since she’s moved back in with Joe I’ve been trying to give her some space.”

“I can’t exactly blame her,” Cisco replied, “so that’s probably for the best.”

Barry seemed to take that as encouragement. “So I was wondering if maybe I could, uh, set up in one of your guest rooms?”

“You want to move in?” Cisco said incredulously.

“No!” said Barry hurriedly, then, “yes.”

“Well, I mean it is your house,” Jesse pointed out.

“No, it’s your house,” Cisco insisted.

“He’s right,” Barry added, “it’s your house, so it’s totally your choice. You can tell me to buzz off if you want.”

Jesse thought for a moment. “Where does Caitlin live?” she asked.

“In the apartment she used to share with Ronnie,” Cisco supplied when Barry’s expression went blank. “I’ve been telling her to move out of that place-”

“Perfect!” Jesse clapped. “Barry and Caitlin can both move in with us, and then we’ll all live here together!”

She and Barry both looked at Cisco for his reaction, and he sighed. “I guess I’ll go call Caitlin then,” he suggested, pulling out his phone, but before he could turn to go Jesse took the two steps to his side and hugged him.

“Thank you,” she said, quietly enough that Barry couldn’t hear her.

Cisco hugged her back. “Anything for you.”

***

They settled into a routine. Every morning they would get up -- first Jesse, then Caitlin, then Cisco and finally Barry -- and have breakfast. Jesse usually waited for Cisco, but Caitlin and Barry ate on their own time. Cisco generally tried to be done with his breakfast before Barry woke up, which was easy due to Barry’s tendency to sleep late despite Jesse’s best efforts to drag things out until he awoke.

Then Barry would head to his job at the Central City Police Department, and Jesse, Cisco and Caitlin would head to STAR Labs. Cisco and Caitlin both had their own projects to work on, and Jesse would help out whenever and wherever she could. In the evening there was their work as Team Flash, and more than once Jesse found herself able to help out there as well. It was fun, being part of a team of vigilantes, even if she was just sitting behind a desk offering suggestions into Barry’s earpiece.

Despite how much fun Jesse was having though, she couldn’t help but notice that Cisco wasn’t himself. He seemed withdrawn around the team, barely talking to Caitlin and giving Barry no more attention than was strictly necessary. He wasn’t enjoying his work, either as an engineer or as a member of Team Flash, and he was subdued even when he wasn’t working. Jesse knew part of it was her parents, and she felt their loss just as keenly, but she knew that these were Cisco’s friends and he was pulling away from them.

“So, why blonde?” Cisco asked conversationally one evening, as Jesse sat on a newly acquired kitchen chair. She was huddling under a black smock, and Cisco was working yellow coloring into her freshly bleached hair.

“I don’t know,” Jesse confessed, letting herself relax as Cisco worked his fingers over her scalp, rubbing in the dye. She’d changed her hair color several times during her freshman year of college, and her mother had enlisted Cisco’s help for each dye job. He’d even dyed his hair blue along with her, once.

“Just felt like I needed a change,” she went on, tilting her head back just a little as Cisco pulled on her hair to work the coloring onto its full length. “A lot’s changed recently, so I felt like I should too.”

Cisco was quiet for a moment, continuing to work, then he spoke softly. “I know that this timeline is different,” he said, “but not _everything_ has to change.”

“I know,” Jesse informed him. “I’m just not sure that you know.”

From her position leaning back she could see Cisco’s face looming over her, so she couldn’t help but grin when he frowned at her upside down. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean that you have friends here,” she explained, “in this timeline, but as far as I’ve seen you barely spend any time with them.”

“I’m spending time with you,” Cisco pointed out, squeezing more dye out of the bottle onto her hair.

Jesse caught his gaze and then pointedly rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

Cisco bit his lip, considering. “I’m not sure being close with Barry is best thing for me,” he said. “I’m not sure it was a good idea to begin with honestly. He’s not who I thought he was.”

“There’s a lot of that going around,” Jesse admitted. “And Caitlin?”

“I just don’t want you to feel like you’re alone here,” he told her.

“Um,” Jesse pointedly awkwardly to herself, “grown ass woman here? I don’t need you to take care of me.”

“Says the girl whose hair I’m currently dyeing,” Cisco groused, but he was smiling despite himself.

“Point taken,” Jesse said, “but I’m making friends here too. You know one of my majors was Biochem, right? I’m learning a lot more working with Caitlin.”

“She’s the best in her field,” Cisco smiled fondly. “You couldn’t find a better teacher.”

“Yep,” Jesse concurred. “And I’m having fun helping Barry too.”

Cisco smile faltered a little, but he hitched it back when he saw her face falling. “Yeah, I guess that’s pretty cool.”

“So,” Jesse prompted, “why don’t you stop hovering and start getting back to your life?”

Cisco sighed. “You know,  you’re the only thing I have left of that timeline too. I loved my life there, and I don’t want to forget it.”

“You won’t,” Jesse promised, “I won’t let you. I’ll still be here; just, Caitlin and Barry will be here too.”

With half her hair done, Cisco tossed the empty dye bottle into the sink and picked up the second one. “Fine,” he said, “but I get to pick for the first, like, five movie nights.”

***

Cisco had to admit, Jesse wasn’t wrong. Despite still being a member of Team Flash, he had been pulling away. Team STAR Labs, as Cisco, Caitlin and Barry referred to their trio, was in shambles, and even though it wasn’t really his fault, Cisco knew he wasn’t making it any better. In particular he knew that he was responsible for the rift between himself and Caitlin, which had nothing to do with what Barry had done. That was all his need to be close to Jesse, and it wasn’t fair to Cait.

“Hey,” Cisco called, standing in the doorway to the cortex. Barry was at work and Jesse had cleared out to amuse herself downtown, so they were alone in the lab.

Caitlin turned. “Cisco!” she said brightly. “How are you?”

“Good,” Cisco replied, bouncing on the balls of his feet. It had used to be so easy to talk to Caitlin, but everything was so different now, he wasn’t sure what to say.

Caitlin smiled understandingly, as though she knew just what he was thinking. “How are things going with Jesse?” she probed. “She seems like she’s settling in okay, but you know her best.”

Cisco breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah,” he said, “she’s doing okay. She misses . . . everything, but I think she’s starting to like this timeline.”

“She seems to like helping Barry,” Caitlin noted.

“Yeah, she’s having fun,” Cisco confirmed, the paused for a moment. “So,” he said at last, “I was wondering if maybe you’d like to get a drink? Or maybe some ice cream? Whichever we hit first?”

Caitlin laughed. “I’d love to Cisco,” she replied. “Do you want to invite Barry?”

Cisco hesitated. He knew he should, he couldn’t hold onto this grudge forever and they needed Barry to make Team STAR Labs whole again, but for some reason he just couldn’t let it go.

“Or just you and me,” Caitlin backpedaled, looking worried. “We can do that too.”

“No, you’re right. We should,” Cisco said, without giving her a straight answer.

Caitlin beckoned him inside, and they sat down together behind the bank of computers nearest the door. “Talk,” she ordered.

“I-” Cisco began, but the words stuck in his throat. “I’m not sure-”

“You need to talk about this,” Caitlin insisted. “What happened in the alternate timeline, between you and Barry? It’s eating at you. You’re not happy Cisco.”

“I know,” Cisco shook his head. “It’s just hard.”

Caitlin shrugged, smiling knowingly. “It’s just me.”

Cisco took a deep breath. “When Barry traveled back in time,” he began, “he erased everything we’ve ever done. All the adventures we had, the bond that we formed, all the people we helped. Everything we accomplished was wiped away.”

“He made it right though,” Caitlin pointed out.

Cisco scoffed. “Because of Iris,” he told her, “not because of me. Actually, I told him not to.”

“Why?” Caitlin frowned.

“Because I had a good life,” Cisco explained, and he could hear his voice on the verge of breaking. “I had a good job, and I was best friends with Jesse and Hartley-”

“Hartley?” Caitlin raised an eyebrow.

“He was nice in the other timeline,” Cisco assured her. “It was because he was mentored by the real Wells, and let me tell you, that guy was amazing. He was so great, so kind and warm and . . . fatherly. He practically adopted me when I started working for him. He was . . .”

“Like a dad?” Caitlin guessed.

Cisco nodded.

“And then Barry took that away from you,” Caitlin surmised. “Oh Cisco, I’m so sorry.”

Cisco closed his eyes. “The thing is,” he confessed, “I don’t know which I’m angrier about: that he ripped away this amazing adventure we’re having, or that he gave me a taste of a normal life and then pulled me back in.”

Caitlin didn’t say anything. There was nothing to be said. Instead she rolled her chair closer and reached out for Cisco, and he let her pull him into her arms. He sniffled against her hair, but didn’t cry, and he lost track of time just letting Cailin hold him.

***

Jesse sat curled up on the couch in the living room, watching a movie on a large screen TV Barry had insisted on buying. She knew he’d done it so that Cisco could watch movies, Eobard Thawne having apparently not owned a TV at all, but she also knew that the only reason he’d thought of it was that he wanted to get back in Cisco’s good graces. As much as she wanted Cisco and Barry to reconnect, Jesse wasn’t stupid; she knew that Barry was responsible for the tension between them. He was trying to fix it though, and that was something.

Cisco and Caitlin were out tonight, and Jesse was pleased about that, so she was content to spend the evening alone. She had just settled in with a bowl of popcorn for a the second movie of the night when suddenly a rush of wind announced Barry’s arrival to the house.

“Cisco?” he called, looking around. He was holding a DVD.

“He’s not here,” Jesse replied, catching Barry’s attention, and his face fell.

“Oh,” he said, coming into the living room at normal speed. “Where is he?”

“Out with Caitlin,” Jesse informed him as he collapsed into a chair, setting the DVD haphazardly on the coffee table.

A slight smile crossed Barry’s face. “That’s good,” he said. “He’s friends with her again, at least.”

“Did they ever stop being friends?” Jesse wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” Barry admitted. “I don’t think so, but he’s been really withdrawn lately.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s because of me.”

“Yeah,” Jesse agreed, causing him to look up at her in surprise, “but you’re trying to fix it, and that’s worth a lot.”

Barry gave her a wry smile. “Not enough,” he said.

“It will be,” Jesse assured him. “You know, there was this one time that he and Hartley were working on a project together that just wasn’t going _anywhere_. Hartley got frustrated and scrapped the entire thing, but just as he did it Cisco came racing in to say he’d figured it out.”

She laughed, remembering the look on Cisco’s face.

“Cisco got so mad he didn’t talk to Hartley for _days_ , but then Hartley started working, like, round the clock to get to where they’d been before. Eventually Cisco saw how much he wanted to fix things, so he forgave Hartley and they started working on it together again.”

Jesse smiled to herself, remembering the warm, fuzzy feeling she’d got from watching them work together again. If she’d driven Cisco into the lab after hours to catch Hartley hard at work, well, no one was going to tattle on her for that.

She looked up, expecting to see Barry looking encouraged, but instead he was staring at her as though she’d grown an extra head.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Nothing,” Barry shook his head, still staring at her. “I just, wow. Cisco . . . really had a whole other life in that timeline, didn’t he?”

Jesse raised an eyebrow. “It took you this long to figure that out?”

“No,” Barry told her quickly, “it’s just . . . I couldn’t . . .” he blushed, turning away.

“What?” Jesse asked. “You couldn’t what?”

“I guess I just couldn’t imagine him having a life without me,” Barry confessed. “He told me, once before, that he hated his life before me. I couldn’t imagine him being happy if I wasn’t there.”

Jesse blinked. “Really?”

“When I say it out loud it sounds really self-centered,” Barry admitted, “but I promise he did say that.”

Jesse considered that for a moment. She couldn’t help but feel that this was the impostor, Eobard Thawne’s influence, but that would only have affected Cisco’s life after a certain point. How bad had his life been exactly, before he’d come to work at STAR Labs?

“What about you?” Barry prompted. “Did you like your life?”

“So much,” Jesse said automatically. “Cisco and Hartley were like my brothers, and my parents were _amazing._ I got to hang out at the lab all the time, and school was awesome, and . . .”

She trailed off, suddenly realizing there was an ache in her chest that hadn’t been there before. All the things she described were things she would never see again, a life that she could never go back to. Suddenly all she wanted to do was cry, but Barry was there and she wasn’t sure she knew him well enough to cry in front of him yet.

Barry noted her sudden silence however, and he looked down. “I’m sorry,” he said, “about your mom. And your dad.”

Jesse nodded, sniffling but holding back her tears. “I just miss them, you know?” she confessed. “I don’t know how to deal with this, so I’ve been just sort of . . . not. I guess holding it back isn’t dealing with it very well though, is it?”

“Hey, it’s better than obsessing over random impossible things for fourteen years until you get struck by lightning and get superpowers,” Barry replied, smiling crookedly.

Jesse blinked at him, suddenly remembering that she wasn’t the only one who had lost someone when the timeline had been set right. Barry had left his mother behind too, without even being able to keep the memories of a life they’d spent together. She wasn’t sure if it was better or worse, having lost his mother so young, not having those memories.

She opened her mouth to say something, she wasn’t sure what, but suddenly she was interrupted by a nearby glass window being blasted apart by a streak of red lightning.

Barry leaped to his feet, dropping into a fighting stance as the Reverse-Flash came to a stop in the middle of the living room. His whole body was vibrating, like she’d seen him vibrate his hand, but his face was hidden by the mask of his suit, identical to Barry’s in every way but color.

It was a good thing, Jesse thought distantly. She didn’t know if she could have taken it if she’d had to face an enemy wearing her father’s face.

“Hello Flash,” he said, in an impossibly deep voice.

“Thawne?” Barry demanded, looking him up and down in disbelief.

“You were expecting someone else?” Thawne asked mockingly.

“How are you even here?” Barry wanted to know. “Eddie erased you!”

“He erased me, yes,” Thawne admitted, “but in doing so he created a paradox. The events that led to my birth did not occur, so I could not exist, yet why would my progenitor have killed himself if not for me? I could not exist, and yet I had to, so I became a living paradox.”

“If you’ve been alive all this time where have you been?” Barry snarled. His eyes were full of fire, full of pain from an old wound recently torn open.

“Trapped,” Thawne said simply. “The particulars are unimportant; all you need to know is that you also created a paradox by going back to save your mother. In doing so, you freed me.”

“No,” Barry whispered, shaking his head, then repeated it at a shout. “No!”

“Yes,” Thawne countered, as calm and collected as Barry was charged and emotional. The perfect reverse of the man he was facing.

“I think you’ll find that it does a man good to be removed from causality,” Thawne went on. “My speed, for example, is quite stable now, which means-”

He took a step forward, and Jesse shrank back against the sofa while Barry defiantly held his ground.

“I no longer have any use for you.”

With that he sped forward and Barry sped to meet him, and suddenly the room was full of red and gold lightning. They chased each other around and around, Jesse caught helplessly in the middle. She screamed, shrinking back onto the couch as sparks flew in every direction, the wind blowing her hair up around her head. There was no way out, nowhere to run and no possible means of escaping the ring of lightning. All she wanted to do was get out, to get _away_ , to run as far and as fast as she could away from all this.

Then, suddenly, everything stopped. The wind stopped roaring in her ears, and the sound of lightning faded from a scream to a faint and occasional crackle. Rather than just the whoosh of bodies traveling impossibly fast she could hear individual footfalls, and the painful crack of flesh meeting flesh.

She opened her eyes, to see that Barry and the Reverse Flash were still chasing each other around the room, both of them running sideways along the walls. Despite this though, despite how fast they were going, she could _see_ them, each individually and not just an electrified blur. It was as though time had slowed down to show her the two speedsters fighting.

Most importantly though, they were moving slowly enough now that Jesse could easily slip between them.

So, naturally, Jesse did not slip between them.

She leaped to her feet and sprinted towards Thawne. He glanced at her, and his red eyes might have shown confusion as she approached but she couldn’t really be sure. Before he could fully switch his attention from Barry onto her she slammed into his stomach, putting the full force of her body behind it and managing to bowl him over. Thawne went sprawling inelegantly onto the floor, lying prone beneath her as Jese managed to keep her feet.

Instantly Barry materialized at her side. He looked down at Thawne, both of them breathing hard, and Thawne looked questioningly between Barry and Jesse. Then there was a flash of red lightning, and suddenly he was gone.

Barry turned to her. “Um, Jesse,” he said gently, “how long have you been able to do that?”

***

“How did this happen?” Jesse heard Barry ask as she ran on the superspeed treadmill.

He, Cisco, Caitlin and the entire West family were clustered around the bank of computers outside the treadmill room, watching intently as she approached 600 miles per hour. Joe looked on in weary resignation, Caitlin in mild curiosity, and Cisco in pride and excitement. He’d been ecstatic to learn that Jesse was a speedster, and had not stopped grinning since she’d been able to activate her speed on the treadmill. Iris looked oddly satisfied at this development, throwing the occasional smug glance at Barry, and Wally was staring at her in open fascination.

“Well Jesse was probably exposed to dark matter radiation the same way everyone in that timeline was,” Cisco answered Barry’s question. “As for how things came up superspeed? I’m not sure.”

“Maybe it’s because she went inside the speed force with Barry?” Caitlin speculated.

“I went inside the speed force with Cisco too,” Iris pointed out, “and I didn’t get superspeed.”

“You hadn’t been exposed to dark matter though,” Cisco pointed out.

“Maybe the speed force just took a liking to her,” Barry said sarcastically.

“It’s as valid a theory as any,” Cisco remarked, grinning at Barry’s sour look.

“You guys know I can hear you right?” Jesse called as she slowed to a normal run.

All of them jumped, then all eyes turned to Cisco as he pointedly stopped leaning on the button to activate the microphones, piping all of their voices into the soundproof treadmill room.

As Jesse slowed to a jog and then a walk the door to the treadmill room opened and Wally entered. He was holding a towel and a water bottle, and as she stepped down off the treadmill he offered them both to her.

“That was pretty cool,” he remarked as Jesse accepted the towel first, using it to pat dry her sweating face.

“Thanks,” said Jesse, glancing at the window to see Cisco and Caitlin moving off, tapping excitedly away on their tablets while the rest of the room watched. Clearly the data they’d gathered had been intriguing.

Some part of her knew that the intensity of their interest had a lot to do with how much no one wanted to think about Eobard Thawne’s return from non-existence, but that was a problem for another day.

“Cisco said that not even Barry could run that fast when he first started,” Wally told her, sounding deeply impressed, and Jesse couldn’t help but smile.

“Yeah, well, he’s got a lot more experience than me,” Jesse pointed out. “I think I’m still going to be letting him take the lead on the whole superhero thing, at least for now.”

“You’re really gonna do it?” Wally asked. “Go out and fight crime?”

“As soon as Cisco finishes my suit,” Jesse confirmed, then took a long drink from the water bottle. It was nice and cold; Wally had found ice to put in it. Jesse didn’t even know where he’d gotten ice in the lab, unless he’d brought it himself.

“What are you gonna call yourself?” Wally wondered. “My sister used to call Barry the Red Streak.”

Jesse shook her head. “That’s an unfortunate image,” she laughed.

Wally laughed too. “I guess it is,” he admitted. “What about . . . Ms. Flash?”

“Oh no,” Jesse held up a finger, putting it close to Wally’s lips but not quite touching them. “I’m nobody’s Deviation from Default thank you.”

Wally held up both hands, grinning. “No ma’am,” he he said.

“Besides,” Jesse went on, “I already have a nickname in mind.”

“Which is?” Wally wanted to know.

Jesse hesitated, and she could feel her smile faltering. She wanted this name, didn’t want it to die with the person who had given it to her, but that wound was still fresh, and it still hurt.

“Jesse Quick,” she said solemnly, and it felt like more than just telling him an idea. She was declaring herself. It felt cathartic, to finally say it.

Wally seemed to sense how much this meant to her, and his carefree smile faded into a more serious expression. “Is that what he called you?” he asked, then went on at her confused look. “Your dad?”

Jesse frowned. “How did you know?”

“That’s what the other Jesse’s dad called her,” Wally explained soberly. “The one from the other Earth.”

Jesse nodded. Cisco had told her about the other Earth, about the versions of her and her father that had come through a portal between worlds to ask for the team’s help. Cisco spoke bitterly about them, as though the memories were unpleasant, but he refused to go into detail. She supposed it made sense, given that they’d brought a dangerous enemy called Zoom with them; memories of fights like that were rarely sweet.

There was one thing though, one thing Iris had told her, that came immediately to the forefront of her mind.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “it was. But I need you to understand something.”

Wally frowned. “What’s that?”

“I am not her,” Jesse told him firmly. “Whatever it is you felt for the other Jesse, I’m not the same person. That’s between you and her.”

“I know,” said Wally hurriedly, eyes widening in alarm. “I know that, I know you’re not her.”

“Do you?” Jesse pressed. “Because I don’t want-”

“You’re not like her,” Wally cut her off, looking intently into her eyes. “You’re different.”

“Different how?” Jesse asked. This wasn’t quite the reaction she’d expected, but she didn’t dislike it.

“I don’t know,” Wally confessed, shrugging, but he didn’t take his eyes off her. “You’re just . . . different. The way I liked her and the way I like you are two different things.”

Jesse felt a smile creeping unbidden onto her face. “You like me?” she pressed teasingly.

Wally grinned. “I thought that was obvious.”

***

Jesse’s training continued. She ran on both the treadmill and the training field to improve her raw speed power. She refined her motor skills while switching abruptly in and out of superspeed by playing Operation with Caitlin. She quickened her fast reasoning abilities, and managed to routinely wipe the floor with Barry at extreme speed chess.

She got faster.

She half expected Cisco to drag his feet with her suit, but he seemed almost as excited as she was for her to begin her super-career and the Jesse Quick suit was finished as fast as he could manage. Barry was a little wary of taking her out on patrol with him at first, but she was smart enough to take his advice for the first few weeks until he got comfortable before striking out on her own. Soon enough they’d settled into an ongoing competition to see who could take down more bad guys, and eventually they started patrolling different parts of the city at the same time to cover more ground.

Central City adored its new heroine. Iris was kind enough to spread the name “Jesse Quick” so they didn’t end up with another Scarlet Speedster situation, and soon enough she had T-shirts and action figures and a drink of her own at Jitters. Cisco bought every Flash and Jesse Quick T-shirt available, and wore them proudly around the lab, much to Jesse and Barry’s amusement.

Jesse appreciated that Cisco was wearing the Flash T-shirts as well as her own, and she knew that Barry did too. It was a small concession, but a concession none the less. Things weren’t okay, not yet, but they would be.

Then, one day after patrol, Jesse returned to find the best gift this version of Central City had offered her yet.

“I have a surprise for you,” Cisco said giddily as he led Jesse towards the cortex.

“Which is?” Jesse asked, one hand over her eyes, the other hand in Cisco’s as he dragged her along.

“Not much of a surprise if I tell you,” Cisco pointed out. Suddenly Cisco came to a stop, then took her by the shoulders and turned her to face the wall. “Okay,” he said. “Now.”

Jesse dropped her hand and opened her eyes. She was standing in the doorway to the cortex, actually, and she took a step forwards until she was inside. The room was, for once, empty, the Flash and Jesse Quick suits on their mannequins and no scientific or vigilante work going on around them. Dimly Jesse wondered where everyone had gone so early in the day, before her eyes lit on the person standing in the center of the room.

“Hartley!” Jesse cried, running forward into the room. Her speed carried her all the way around the computer banks until she was right in front of him before realization brought her up short.

This was the Hartley from this timeline, not the one she had grown up with. He didn’t remember her.

“Jesse,” Hartley said more quietly, holding out a hand. Jesse shook it, trying not to feel disappointed. This Hartley was his own person, just like she wasn’t the Jesse from the other Earth. He didn’t deserve to see her moping because he wasn’t the Hartley she remembered.

“It’s nice to- to meet you,” Jesse tried for a smile, but wasn’t sure she managed it.

Hartley smiled though, and it was so heartbreakingly similar to the way he’d smiled at her before, fond and knowing and like-

“I understand Jesse,” he said, interrupted her thoughts. “Cisco explained about the alternate timeline.”

“Oh,” Jesse breathed, a little relieved.

Of course Cisco would have explained everything. He wouldn’t have let Hartley go into this conversation blind. Even if Hartley didn’t remember how things were in the other timeline, Cisco hadn’t forgotten how good of a friend Hartley could be. It would be unfair to just spring this on him.

“That must be weird for you,” Jesse went on, dropping Hartley’s hand which she realized she’d been holding for a little too long.

“Not as weird as I’m sure it is for you,” Hartley pointed out.

Jesse nodded slightly. “Yeah, it’s . . . odd. But it’s kind of unfair to you to expect you to deal with that.”

“A little,” Hartley shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. “But with everything else that’s gone on in this city it’s not as bad as you’d think. Doesn’t even compare to being asked to work with a doppleganger of the man who left me crippled, but then again there was a reason I didn’t join Team Flash last year.”

Jesse frowned. She knew that Eobard Thawne had done many terrible things while posing as her father, but Cisco still wouldn’t talk about his counterpart from the other Earth in any kind of detail. Not for the first time she wondered exactly what Cisco wasn’t telling her about that man, if not about Eobard Thawne.

“So, um,” Jesse struggled for words, “where have you been? I thought Cisco’d been trying to get in contact with you for a while.”

“I was out of town,” Hartley explained. “I heard there was a new speedster in Central City, came to pay my respects and then Cisco explained how Barry’s poor life choices had fucked up the timeline again.”

“Again?” Jesse repeated, perplexed.

“Oh, this has happened before,” Hartley informed her. “Just ask him.”

“It’s true,” Cisco confirmed. Jesse glanced over to where he’d settled himself leaning against a bank of computers.

“At some point you have to make him tell her about the time wraith,” Hartley told Cisco.

“The time wraith?” Jesse prompted.

“Oh god the time wraith,” Cisco shuddered, covering his eyes with one hand. Jesse glanced over at Hartley to see that he was smiling, and suddenly it felt like she was back home, in her own STAR Labs with her two older brothers.

Hartley seemed to notice the nostalgic look in her eyes, and he turned back to her.

“Look,” he said, “I’m not the Hartley you remember-”

“I know,” Jesse nodded hurriedly, “and I’m not asking you to-”

“But,” Hartley interrupted, “I’d be lying to say I wasn’t curious about this alternate timeline where I was apparently folded into your family.”

“You were,” Jesse confirmed. “You were like my brother.”

Hartley nodded. “I know what it’s like to suddenly find yourself alone with no one to turn to,” he explained, his expression more serious, “and while you seem to be doing alright for yourself here, I’d still like you to know that I’m here if you need me.”

Jesse didn’t know what to say to that. She thought she might cry if she opened her mouth, so she simply smiled gratefully.

“I’ll be staying in the city for a while,” Hartley informed Cisco. “If you need help with that . . . thing, you’re working on-”

“I’m not worried about getting her hopes up,” Cisco said firmly. “I’m _going_ to find a way to get your memories back. That’s a promise.”

Hartley glanced nervously at Jesse. “Yes, well,” he coughed. “If you need help with that or you, you make any progress, let me know.”

***

“Do you really think you can get Hartley to remember the other timeline?” Jesse wondered, that evening in the lab after everyone else had gone home.

“I’ll do it,” Cisco assured her. He was hunched over a tablet, working on something as Jesse cleaned the scorch marks off her suit from the explosion she’d been caught in while on patrol. The Trickster was loose again.

“We should start exploring your powers more,” Jesse suggested. “If the key to making Hartley remember is anywhere, it’s with them.”

“I’ve drawn people into the speed force with me before,” Cisco told her. “Maybe it’s possible I could draw them into a vibe too?”

“How long do the vibes usually last?” Jesse inquired. “Does time pass the same way when you’re having one, or do you experience a few minutes worth of vision in the time it takes you to gasp? It would take a while to get through that many _years_ worth of memories.”

“If we have to go vibe by vibe I’ll do it,” Cisco promised. “We can skip over the boring stuff, get right to the important things. Maybe we should make a list of, like, really pivotal events in-”

“Ramon,” said a familiar voice from the direction of the door.

Jesse’s blood went cold. Both of them turned, to see Eobard Thawne standing framed in the doorway. He had forgone his Reverse Flash suit this time, replacing it with head to toe black clothing, a black backpack and a large gun of some kind slung over one shoulder. It seemed that changing the timeline hadn’t done anything to alter his appearance, and without his mask she could clearly see that he still wore her father’s stolen face. He was staring directly at her, but Jesse didn’t wait to decipher his expression before she moved.

She used every ounce of speed she had to cross the room as fast as possible, putting the full force of her movement behind barreling into Thawne’s chest. He slammed up against the wall, Jesse’s forearm pressed against his throat. He didn’t fight, just stood there struggling to breath, staring down at Jesse in shock.

“Jesse!” Cisco called from behind her, but she ignored him. She wouldn’t let Thawne hurt him, she wouldn’t let him hurt anyone-

“Stop!” came a voice to Jesse’s right, and she glanced over to see-

Herself.

A girl who looked exactly like Jesse was standing beside her, glaring at her angrily. Jesse released Thawne in sheer surprise, and he slid down the wall coughing. Jesse and the girl who looked like Jesse stared at one another, the other girl looking just as confused as Jesse felt.

“Who are you?” Jesse asked after a moment.

“I’m Jesse Wells,” the girl said indignantly. “Who the hell are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter's going to be hard for me, so let me know if you're enjoying this story, okay?


	5. Count on Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was so hard to write, just because of how emotional it got. tell me what you think okay?

Jesse sat across the cortex from her Earth-2 counterpart, the two of them staring at each other. They’d both tried to focus on what the others were saying, but their eyes kept drifting back to each other until they were staring openly again. The cortex was full of people: Barry, Caitlin, Iris, Joe, Wally and of course Cisco, but Jesse just couldn’t pay attention to anyone but her doppelganger.

There was also Harry, the Earth-2 doppelganger of her father, but she’d rather have looked anywhere but at him.

“Fascinating,” Harry interrupted Barry’s ongoing explanation of what had occurred on Earth-1 since his and Jesse’s departure. “The fact that she’s a time remnant and the return of Reverse Flash would have been sufficient.”

“He hasn’t even gotten to the best part yet,” Wally protested.

He threw a glance at Jesse, grinning, then picked up an empty mug off a nearby table. She nodded, and he tossed the mug toward the other side of the room. Jesse sped across the room, catching it easily, and looked over to see Harry and Other Jesse gaping at her. She curtsied sardonically, then sped back to her seat next to Cisco.

“How did that happen?” Harry wanted to know, his frown neatly mirroring his daughter’s.

“Jesse was exposed to dark matter radiation the same way everyone in the alternate timeline was,” Cisco explained. “Like your particle accelerator, the one Harrison built quietly expelled dark matter without anyone noticing.”

“Harrison?” Harry asked, in some distaste.

“We had a different relationship,” Cisco shot back. His eyes were narrowed, and his tone had that hard quality to it that meant it was close to breaking. Jesse put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Cisco covered hers with his own.

Harry eyed those hands with even more distaste. “How did she become a speedster then?” he asked. “I was under the impression that electrocution was necessary for that particular ability to manifest.”

“Jesse went through the speed force with Barry in order to become part of the paradox,” Cisco told him. “We think it might have . . . taken a liking to her.”

Harry gave Cisco a look of deepest condescension, and Jesse bristled. “You have another theory?” she asked, and Harry looked taken aback.

“Why don’t you tell us why you’re here?” Caitlin piped up, cutting through the tension that had developed in her usual tactful manner.

Harry turned back to Cisco, a slight smile spreading over his face. There was nothing warm about that smile, nothing friendly or inviting. It looked sly, almost vicious, and oddly predatory. It seemed wrong that he could make her father’s mouth do that.

“We came back for Ramon,” he told her, not taking his eyes off Cisco.

Cisco shrank back against Jesse. “Me?” he squeaked.

“We’ve been studying the Earth-2 metahumans,” Harry explained, returning his attention to Caitlin, “running a few experiments to try and determine the exact mechanism of their transformation, how their powers really work. Several metahuman prisoners were willing to become test subjects, but we’ve met some . . .”

He trailed off, clearly grasping for a term.

“Public opposition,” Other Jesse supplied.

“Thank you Jess,” he said quickly, throwing her a fond smile.

“What kind of opposition?” Barry asked.

“The _Flash_ ,” Harry spat the word as though it were foul on his tongue, “disapproves of our work.”

“He thinks it’s unethical to experiment on prisoners,” Jesse explained.

“Your family doing something unethical? What a surprise,” Cisco said, not sounding surprised at all.

“He’s standing in the way of progress,” Other Jesse said, glaring at him. “These people are criminals-”

“So that makes them somehow less human?” Jesse wanted to know.

“Jesse, just leave it,” Cisco said, closing his eyes wearily and rubbing at his temples.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” snapped other Jesse. “They broke the law-”

“I meant my Jesse,” Cisco said exasperatedly.

“What exactly gives you ownership of her?” Harry wanted to know.

“That’s it!” Cisco groused. “You-” he pointed at Earth-2 Jesse, “-are now Jessica. She-” he jerked his thumb at the one remaining Jesse in the room, “-is Jesse.”

“Why does she get to be Jesse?” Jessica demanded.

“Because this is my Earth and I make the rules,” Cisco informed her. “She just lost her entire world _and_ both her parents. She gets to keep her name.”

Jessica grumbled, but sat back in her chair and said nothing.

“This still leaves us with why you came back for Cisco,” Barry reminded them.

Harry found his slightly vicious grin again, turning his attention back to Cisco. “You, Ramon-” he pointed, “-are going to be our new guinea pig.”

“What?” Cisco demanded.

“No!” said Jesse, at the same time.

“You still haven’t unlocked the full potential of your powers,” Harry went on, as though neither of them had spoken. “My experiments will help with that.”

“So, what, you’re just going to poke him with a stick until his full powers come in?” Jesse speculated incredulously.

“We’re going to be a bit more scientific than that,” Jessica assured her patronizingly. “I guess you were just starting college when the whole timeline thing happened?”

“I’d just graduated actually,” Jesse informed her smugly. “I hope all that traveling between dimensions didn’t wreck your GPA.”

“I had five majors,” Jessica told her, “I know how to keep up.”

“Wow, five majors!” Jesse gave her best pitying look. “Didn’t have time for a sixth?”

“Oh please,” Jessica scoffed, “and what was your sixth major?”

Jesse leaned one arm on Cisco’s shoulders. “Spanish,” she said coolly, feeling him shake with the effort not to laugh.

Harry decided he’d had enough. “Ramon,” he cut the argument short, making Cisco straighten up and stop laughing. “You should go home, get a good night’s sleep. We start in the morning.”

“Wait a minute,” Cisco protested, “I didn’t agree to this!”

Harry closed his eyes, sighed, then opened them again. “Every major breakthrough you have made with your powers has been because of me,” he said sharply. “Have you made any progress with them since we last met?”

“No,” Cisco admitted, “but-”

“You need me,” Harry said firmly. “You need my help, and I need a test subject. This is the only logical solution.”

Cisco hesitated, and Jesse couldn’t think of anything to say either. Harry gave her the creeps, and Jessica was annoying at best, but it was true that not much progress had been made with Cisco’s powers since resetting the timeline. She was ashamed to admit it, but she’d been so caught up in her own powers she hadn’t given much thought to exploring Cisco’s. He deserved better than that. He deserved to test and flex and understand his powers just like she did.

“Cisco,” she put a hand on his arm, and he turned to her. “You should do it.”

“Jesse,” he said, looking worriedly between her and Harry.

“You deserve this,” she went on, then at Cisco’s confused expression she clarified, “to have someone help you develop your powers.”

“You don’t know him like I do,” he whispered, low enough that only Jesse could hear him.

Jesse smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be there with you, every step of the way.”

“Promise?” Cisco asked, throwing a glance at Barry, and Jesse knew exactly what he was afraid of.

She pressed a kiss to his forehead, then wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. “Promise.”

***

“Jesse,” called Iris as they all filed toward the exit.

Jesse turned, to see Iris beckoning her toward Caitlin’s make-shift hospital room. Jessica and Harry had gone deeper into STAR Labs to find a place to put their stuff, and the rest of them were heading for home. Iris glanced at Harry’s retreating back, but he didn’t seem to be paying them any attention, so she signaled to Jesse again. Jesse looked at Cisco questioningly, and at his nod she followed Iris into the little room off the cortex.

“Everything okay?” Jesse asked when Iris shut the door behind them.

“Yeah,” Iris said, but she still stopped to glance out the window to see that no one remained in the cortex. “I just wanted to talk to you for a second.”

“About what?” Jesse frowned, wondering what Iris would want to say to her and not Cisco.

Iris turned to look at her, worry in her eyes. “I just wanted to ask you to keep an eye on Cisco,” she explained. “I know you can get really protective of each other, and I think that while Harry’s here it’s best if Cisco has someone watching his back.”

Jesse frowned. “While Harry’s here?” she repeated dubiously.

“You weren’t here when he came last time,” Iris told her. “He and Cisco had to work together a lot because of the circumstances.”

Iris looked down. “Harry wasn’t exactly . . . kind.”

“Barry let that happen?” Jesse asked in shock, but at Iris’s look her surprise faded. She didn’t need to answer; her expression said everything.

“Just keep an eye on him, okay?” Iris advised. “Don’t let Harry push him around.”

“I won’t,” Jesse assured her.

Iris nodded her understanding. She turned to the door, but before she opened it suddenly she turned back.

“One more thing,” she said. “Don’t leave them alone together.”

Jesse narrowed her eyes. “How bad did it get last time?”

Iris looked at her steadily, and Jesse could see pain behind her eyes. Pain, and regret.

“Just look out for him,” she said.

“Count on it,” Jesse replied, and Iris gave a relieved smile.

***

Jesse Wells, daughter of Harrison Wells, Multidisciplinary Scientist and the Smartest Girl Alive, woke bright and early on the day she and her father were to begin their experiments. It was an auspicious day, she told herself as she zipped up the black and red dress she’d brought specifically for her first day back on this Earth. A lot of important things would be happening, she reasoned as she applied her favorite shade of red lipstick. She had to look her best.

Precisely what -- or rather, who -- she had to look her best for wasn’t important. She had to look her best.

Her father preferred to sleep in on days when he was to start big projects, letting his body dictate its own needs, so he was still asleep when Jesse left their shared room and began to explore the lab. She knew that people would start coming in soon: Ramon and Dr. Snow would arrive early, earlier than her father would wake up, and the Flash wouldn’t return to the lab until late afternoon. This would give them plenty of time to run their experiments without him poking his nose into things, but it also meant that the other members of Team Flash wouldn’t arrive until he did.

She knew that it was unlikely that any of those other members would be around this early in the morning, but she also hadn’t thought that they would be around to receive her and her father given the time of night it had been when they’d arrived. Despite the early hour, there was a chance they might be here. There was a chance _he_ might be here.

For a while Jesse wandered the halls nearest the cortex, listening for the sound of voices. She avoided the sounds of Ramon and Dr. Snow setting up in their respective workspaces, wondering vaguely if her bottle-blonde doppelganger was lurking around, and kept aimlessly roaming the halls.

Eventually the sound of a specific voice, _that_ voice, caught her attention.

“It must be hard,” Wally was saying as Jesse crept up to the door, grinning in anticipation. She peeked around the doorframe, already giving her brightest and most charming smile, but her face fell when she caught sight of the scene playing out inside.

Wally was leaning against a table, thick arms folded over his muscular chest. With her back to him was Jesse’s doppelganger, her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail as she grabbed random clutter off a worktable and threw it into a toolbox. Dimly Jesse realized this must be her work area; she was cleaning up as she prepared to move herself into the room where the experiments would be taking place.

Tremendous.

“A little,” her doppelganger admitted, and Jesse pulled her head back, not wanting to be seen just yet.

“I mean, he looks just like your dad,” Wally went on. “If I saw someone who looked just like my mom right now, I don’t know if I could handle it.”

“He’s not like my father,” Other Jesse told him, the sound of various items being thrown to the toolbox continuing even as she spoke. “He looks like him, but he’s nothing like him at all.”

“How so?” Wally wondered, and by the sound of rustling fabric Jesse thought he might have uncrossed his arms.

“He gives me an icky feeling,” Other Jesse complained. “Nothing about him reminds me of my dad. Believe me, if you knew him, you’d never make the mistake.”

Jesse bristled at the insult to her father but kept quiet. Coming out of her hiding spot now would make it obvious she’d been eavesdropping, and she wasn’t ready to tip that particular hand just yet. She wanted to see how much more she could learn about her counterpart, and she didn’t want Wally to think she was nosy. She wondered if Wally would defend her father, on his own merits or perhaps on her behalf.

He didn’t.

“Yeah but it can’t have been easy,” he pressed instead. “Even just looking at him has to have brought back a few memories.”

The clattering of objects into the toolbox stopped, and the room went quiet.

“I guess,” Other Jesse began, “it’s like how the Reverse-Flash stole his appearance, you know? It feels like an insult, that he can look so much like my father and still make me so . . . uncomfortable.”

Again Jesse clenched her hands and fought the urge to storm out into the room. Her father hadn’t _stolen_ anything; that was his appearance and he had as much right to it as his doppelganger. More than ever she wanted Wally to say something, defend her family in some way, but once again he did not.

“Hey,” he said, and Jesse could hear the shuffling of feet that meant he was probably stepping closer to her counterpart. “If you need someone to talk to . . .”

He trailed off, and all sound within the room ceased. The silence dragged on for too long, and Jesse grew impatient. Carefully she peaked around the doorframe, to see that Wally had indeed crossed the room to stand at her doppelganger’s side. He had done more than that though, he had walked right into her personal space and was raising a hand to touch her cheek. The other Jesse smiled, then put her hands tentatively on Wally’s chest. Encouraged, Wally wrapped his arms around her, loosely at first and then tighter, until he was holding her very close. She let her arms slide around his neck and rested her head on his chest. Her eyes were closed.

Jesse returned to her previous position sheltering behind the doorframe. There was a strange ringing in her ears, and she felt hot all over. She leaned against the wall, her knees weakening beneath her, and struggled to control her breathing so that they wouldn’t hear her. The day did not feel auspicious anymore.

That was alright, she reasoned as she marched back the way she had come. It could still be auspicious. She could still _make_ it auspicious, by whatever means she had to. Everything would go well. The experiments would be a success. They would learn a lot.

Harrison and Jesse Wells would take _auspicious_ out of Cisco Ramon’s hide.

***

Cisco looked on nervously as Harry and Jessica set up their equipment. They really were the ideal lab partners, he thought as he watched them work together: they tossed things easily between them, finished each other’s sentences, moved around each other as though going through a choreographed dance. He remembered a time when he’d had someone like that to work with, in both this timeline and the other one. He missed the timeline where Hartley had been his lab partner.

Jesse stood beside him, watching the proceeding with equal trepidation. Something about Harry and Jessica had spooked her, and having nowhere better to be she’d insisted on being present for this. Already this was more attention than Cisco was used to in this timeline, and he had to keep reminding himself that Tess wasn’t about to round the corner and demand that they stop this madness.

It was good, he reasoned, to lose himself in the memories of the other timeline. _It’s just Harrison_ , he told himself. _This is just another fun experiment. By the end of the day we’ll have set three fires and totalled the lab, but we’ll emerge victorious and covered with soot._

“Are you sure about this?” Jesse asked as Harry finished setting things up and began to fiddle with the controls. Jessica was right there with him, fiddling merrily and laughing at his weird sense of humor.

“You were the one who thought I should learn about my powers,” Cisco pointed out.

“Yes,” Jesse admitted, “but it’s not urgent enough that we need to do something you’re not comfortable with.”

“You and Barry risk your lives every day,” Cisco countered.

“That’s necessary,” Jesse scowled, “this isn’t. You’re an important part of the team and risking you isn’t a smart move.”

“Relax,” Harry advised her as he approached, Jessica continuing to adjust things. “This part at least is perfectly safe. Some blood work and a few brain scans, nothing scary.”

He smiled cheerfully, and Cisco wondered if that had more to do with Jesse looking like Jessica or the simple fact that Harry was currently getting his way. As Jesse continued to watch Harry beckoned Cisco over to the chair they had set up, and when he was seated began to attach electrodes to his forehead. Jessica began looking for a vein to draw blood from, and Harry switched on the machine.

Cisco jerked slightly, and instantly Jesse was at his side.

“Are you okay?” she demanded.

“Fine,” Cisco smiled reassuringly. “Just a little static electricity.”

“I’m not going to damage my test subject,” Harry assured her, then threw a lever with such force that Cisco jolted again.

Jesse glared at him distrustfully, but resumed her position as Jessica stuck Cisco with a needle and began to draw blood. She took several vials, each of them carefully labeled, and by the time she was done he was a bit lightheaded. He didn’t think it wise to stand up too fast.

The whole process didn’t take very long, all things considered. Harry used several pieces of equipment to construct several 2D and 3D maps of his resting brain, putting them together on a computer right in front of Cisco’s eyes. Meanwhile Jessica started on his bloodwork, storing three vials for later use as she took the rest and began tinkering with them in a way that reminded him comfortingly of Caitlin.

It was okay. Nothing scary.

Eventually Cisco transferred himself into a rolling chair and began spinning idly. Jesse had relaxed somewhat and was now slouching a chair of her own, but was still looking at Harry somewhat warily. It felt good, in a strange way, to be the subject of such studious attention on all sides. It made him feel important.

“Any surprises?” he asked, rolling up beside where Jessica had set herself up with a computer. She had returned to her worktable momentarily, and Cisco took the opportunity to bump her empty chair out of the way so that he could see the screen.

“Nope!” Jessica exclaimed, coming back over hurriedly. She took hold of the back of his chair and pushed him roughly away, sending him spinning across the floor for a few feet. “You’re a test subject,” she said condescendingly, “not a scientist, remember?”

A small gust of wind preceded Jesse’s sudden appearance at Cisco’s elbow.

“Excuse you,” she snapped at Jessica.

“What?” Jessica frowned, taking her seat and turning back to the computer.

Jesse reached out and turned her chair back towards Cisco. “Cisco is still a scientist,” Jesse reminded her, “and this experiment is all about him, he has a right to be curious.”

“And?” Jessica prompted, looking annoyed.

“And?” Jesse repeated, incredulously. “Apologize!”

Jessica rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.

Jesse looked like she’d have had more to say on the matter, but Cisco put a hand on her arm. She glanced down at him, and he shook his head, smiling as he tried to convey that he didn’t mind. It was okay, he was used to this kind of brush off from the Wells family.

Jesse, however, clearly wasn’t. “I just remembered something I have to do,” she announced, pulling Cisco up and out of his chair. “I need Cisco’s help.”

“Hey,” Harry called as Jesse began to drag Cisco toward the door. “We’re not finished here, we need to do more tests-”

“You can do them tomorrow,” Jesse tossed carelessly over her shoulder, already halfway out the door with Cisco in tow.

***

“What was that?” Cisco asked once they’d gotten back the cortex.

Jesse made a face. “I don’t like the way she talks to you,” she grumbled. “I don’t like the way _either_ of them talk about you. Like you’re just a lab rat.”

“It’s okay,” Cisco smiled, taking her by the arms. “Really, I’m used to it with them.”

“You shouldn’t be though,” Jesse argued. “No one should ever have to get _used_ to being treated badly.”

Cisco paused, considering this. It was true, he’d been pretty outraged at Harry’s behavior at first, but then it had just become status quo. Barry hadn’t say anything about it, and no one else had either, so Cisco had just learned to accept it.

There was, however, still one important factor to consider.

“We need to understand my powers better,” he told her softly. “For Hartley.”

It was Jesse’s turn to pause, realization flitting over her face to be instantly replaced by sorrow. “Oh,” she said, “right.”

“My powers are the only way to get his memories back,” Cisco went on. “If Harry can help us figure out how they work, then we can figure out a way to help Hartley.”

He held out a hand to her. “For Hartley?”

Jesse took it, then used it to pull him into a hug. “For Hartley,” she agreed.

***

The next day, with Jesse’s reluctant blessing, the experiments continued. Harry got the rest of his scans done and Jessica drew some more blood, though neither of them made any comment on the events of the day prior. Jessica appeared content to forget about her little squabble with Jesse, and at Cisco’s stern look Jesse did the same. Cisco seemed to be warming to the idea of being experimented on, even if Jesse wasn’t, and she was more determined than ever to stay by his side and not let Harry bully him into anything. She would allow the experiments to continue, for Hartley’s sake, but she refused to risk one brother for the mere chance of getting back another.

The very first test, however, was already a bit difficult for Jesse to consent to.

“We have the resting brain scans,” Harry announced, placing some sort of device around Cisco’s head, “now we need scans of his brain while using his powers, ie while accessing the speed force.”

“How?” Jesse wanted to know, eyeing it dubiously.

“By electrically stimulating his prefrontal cortex while he’s opening a breach,” Harry explained, jumping down from the enormous contraption where he’d situated Cisco. “This will give him physical access to the speed force, allowing him to travel freely into and out of it. We’ll run a series of scans while he’s inside, then get additional blood work once he’s out.”

“Shouldn’t we start with something smaller?” Cisco suggested. “We could try during a vibe; I still have the goggles-”

“Go big or go home Ramon,” Harry cut him off, voice rough and impatient.

“I don’t think running an electric current through his brain is really called for right now,” Jesse piped up, glaring down at Harry from Cisco’s other side.

Cisco turned to her, smiling wanly, and she could see that he was trying to be comforting even though he himself wasn’t feeling particularly comforted.

“Don’t worry,” he told her, “I’ve done this before.”

“You let him electrocute you before?” Jesse wanted to know.

“Electrically stimulate,” Cisco corrected, though Jesse could sense that he was just as nervous as her. “It sounds crazy, but it works.”

“Let’s get this show on the road then,” Harry beckoned Jesse down off the device, and Jesse reluctantly left Cisco inside it as she climbed down and went to stand next to Harry and Jessica at the controls.

When Harry began the electrical stimulation the effect was almost instantaneous. Cisco’s head was thrown back, and before Jesse could decide whether she wanted to go to him or not a tornado of blue energy, crackling with the occasional bolt of lightning, sprang to life around him. The roaring of it filled the room as Cisco was obscured from view, and Jesse could feel a strange pull toward the swirling energy.

This was the Speed Force. The same energy that crackled through her veins when she ran was whirling around Cisco, and Jesse felt a strange pull towards it. It was as if it were calling to her, calling her forward, drawing her inside itself. It wasn’t too strong to resist though, so she held her ground, but she felt almost as though she could sense Cisco’s presence within it as well, small and scared.

Immediately Harry and Jessica began to work. They had attached electrodes to Cisco and pointed a number of scanning devices at the point where he would be, and Harry darted to the first one to begin the test while Jessica took up position beside another. There were several such devices arranged around the vortex, but they could only be activated one at a time lest they interfere with each other. Cisco would have to be in there a long time if they were going to run all of them.

“No,” Jesse croaked. Her voice was hoarse, like she hadn’t used it in a very long time. “No, stop. Shut it off.”

“We can’t,” Harry waved her off, “we’re not finished-”

“It’s going to take too long,” Jesse interrupted. “It’s not safe.”

“Ramon will be fine,” Harry assured her, not sounding particularly interested in whether Cisco was fine or not. “What’s important is this data.”

“No!” Jesse protested. “It’s too dangerous, we need to shut it down!”

She could definitely feel Cisco now, calling to her silently from within the speed force. It was almost like the speed force itself were speaking to her, angry at the intrusion, unwilling to channel itself through a too-fragile host. Cisco was already overwhelmed with a power far beyond it, and it would not force its way inside.

Jesse zipped to the controls and, before Harry or Jessica could protest, shut the machine down.

“Damn it!” Harry swore, switching off his scanner as Jesse sped over to Cisco.

Cisco was limp, leaning against the framing of his seat inside the device. Jesse helped him sit straight, and blearily he opened his eyes.

“Jesse,” he said softly.

“I’m here,” Jesse told him. She pulled the contraption from around Cisco’s head and tossed it aside.

“And we don’t have any of our data!” Harry chimed in. He kicked angrily at his control panel, and Jesse glared.

“You almost killed him!” she snarled.

“This is necessary if we want to understand his powers,” Harry insisted. “We need those scans to construct suitable experiments to test-”

“No experiment is worth Cisco’s life!” Jesse protested. “Not ever!”

Harry growled, actually _growled_ at her, and Jessica went to his side. He put his arm around her, and this seemed to calm him down, but both of them continued to glare at Jesse.

They could glare all they wanted, Jesse thought to herself. She wasn't going to let them hurt her brother again.

***

Jesse insisted that Cisco be looked over by Caitlin. She took him to the makeshift hospital room off the cortex, and Caitlin gave him a full examination. Eventually she decided that there was nothing wrong with him that a little bedrest wouldn’t cure: he was pronounced weak, exhausted and pretty shaken up, but otherwise undamaged.

Jesse wasn’t sure what she’d have done to Harry and Jessica if Cisco _hadn’t_ been undamaged, but it wouldn’t have been pleasant.

Eventually the two of them made their way into the cortex, wearing identical scowls.They began working with the data they had, despite the fact that Jesse knew the computers in the lab where they’d set up were perfectly functional. They waited there for the better part of an hour while Jesse sat vigil beside Cisco’s dozing form, and when Cisco woke up from his nap they were still out there. Jesse wanted them gone, didn’t want them to even _see_ Cisco, but Cisco refused to let her speed him away and so she simply stayed beside him as he walked sedately out into the cortex.

“So,” Harry began immediately, “when do you intend to actually let us start working?”

Cisco sighed, covertly taking hold of Jesse’s wrist to stop her from answering. “Why don’t we try again tomorrow?” he suggested. “We’ll start smaller; we can use the goggles.”

“If you don’t push your limits you’re never going to get stronger,” Harry argued. “We’ll never learn anything if you don’t unlock your full potential.”

“I don’t even know where my limits are,” Cisco protested. “We can work our way up, but we need to go slower.”

“That’s the point,” Jessica snapped. “You don’t know what you’re doing! You’re a lab rat, and you need us to-”

Jessica didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. At the words ‘lab rat’ Jesse saw red, and as soon as she could clamp down her anger enough to not just punch Jessica in the face she sped out of the cortex, grabbing Jessica by the collar and hauling her out into the hallway.

Jessica gave an undignified little shriek as she was slammed up against the wall, on the other side of the lab where her father wouldn’t swiftly disturb them. She opened her eyes wide and fearfully, shrinking back against the wall. Jesse would have loved to loom over her, but this was made somewhat difficult by the fact that they were exactly the same height. She settled for putting all of her vitriol into her heated glare, and if Jessica’s expression were any indication, it worked.

“Listen up,” Jesse snarled, “I don’t know what your dad’s taught you about how to treat people who are doing you favors, but his lessons left a lot to be desired.”

“He’s not doing us a favor,” Jessica retorted, fear fading beneath indignation, “we’re doing _him_ a favor.”

“Bullshit,” Jesse snapped. “He let you into his life. He helped you, both of you, when Zoom was breathing down your necks and you had no one else to turn to. He gave you access to his lab and his time and his powers, and now you’re back for more because you knew he’d give it to you.”

“We’re helping him learn about his abilities,” Jessica protested.

“You’re not even letting him _look_ at your findings!” Jesse countered, barely holding back a scream. “You’re treating him like a specimen in a jar.”

“He is a specimen in this case,” Jessica said firmly.

“Human beings are not your goddamn science project,” Jesse hissed. “You think Cisco is just a toy, something you can plug into a power outlet and he’ll do whatever you want? I’m here to tell you it doesn’t work like that sweetie, and you’ve disrespected that man in his own lab for the last time.”

Jessica opened her mouth to say something, but Jesse cut her off before she could even get a word out.

“If you ever talk to my _brother_ that way again,” she said, low and dangerous, “I will drag you down to the pipeline so fast your head will spin, and we’ll see if a night or two in the Shut Up Box will teach you some manners.”

With that Jesse turned on her heel and sped back to the cortex, leaving Jessica to make her own way back from the distant corner of the lab where she’d been dragged. Jesse would talk to Harry next, and when she was through the two of them would never disrespect her family again. She wasn’t going to stand for this anymore.

When Jesse arrived back in the cortex, Cisco and Harry were gone.

***

Cisco knew perfectly well that Jesse would lose it at the words ‘lab rat.’ He’d closed his eyes, willing her to keep her temper, but a part of him secretly hoped she wouldn’t. He knew she wouldn’t hurt Jessica, would never hurt an innocent human no matter how obnoxious, and it was nice having someone stand up for him for once.

“She’ll be fine,” Cisco said dully as Harry’s head whipped around to look at the doorway through which his daughter had just disappeared.

Harry didn’t look entirely convinced, but he straightened his clothes and kept his composure none the less.

“Where are they going?” he wanted to know.

“Somewhere to talk,” Cisco said vaguely. He had no doubt that Jesse would be doing most of the talking, but Jessica might get a word in edgewise. They were each other’s counterparts, after all.

Harry considered for a moment. “Why don’t we go work on something together then?” he proposed.

Cisco frowned. “Like what?”

“Your active powers,” Harry suggested. “The ones you used to escape from Black Siren. I have an experiment in mind to help unlock them.”

Cisco hesitated. Jesse would want to be there if he were doing any experiments, but her judgement was a bit clouded by protectiveness and he wasn’t even sure she’d permit any more experiments at all when she got back. If they were going to do this it was best to do it now, before Jesse could put her foot down.

When Cisco looked back at Harry he was smiling a friendly, benevolent smile. It was kind of creepy to be honest, but Cisco couldn’t think of a reason to refuse, so he shrugged and followed Harry out of the cortex.

“So what did you have in mind?” Cisco asked as they emerged out onto the cavernous training room where Barry had learned to throw lightning.

“A relatively simple test,” Harry assured him, positioning him at a specific spot on the floor.

Harry then backed away several paces, leaving Cisco standing alone in the middle of the room. He looked around, but he could see no equipment; even the stuff they’d used to train Linda had been put away. He was just standing there, surrounded by empty space, nothing to hit or blast or anything.

He looked back at Harry, planning to ask what it was he had in mind, to find that the older man was now holding a gun.

“Whoah!” Cisco backed up a step as Harry raised the weapon.

“Stop me,” he commanded, voice gravely and impassive, almost like Zoom’s.

“What?” Cisco demanded. His heart was pounding in his chest, his skin prickling with fear. He looked around for somewhere to hide, something to take cover behind, but there was nothing around him. Harry had planned it exactly that way.

“Stop the bullets Ramon,” Harry ordered, then fired.

Cisco didn’t even have time to react. Before he could raise a hand, before he could even try to defend himself, a blur of gold lightning was racing past. Jesse came to a stop in front of him, one hand fisted in the air above his heart.

She dropped the bullets to the ground with a clatter, then whirled on Harry.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” she screamed.

Harry rolled his eyes as though exasperated with Jesse’s attempt to save Cisco’s life. “He would have stopped them,” he said impatiently. “If you would just-”

“No,” Jesse cut him off, “ _shooting at someone_ is not one of your goddamn experiments you sick fuck!”

“It would have worked!” Harry snapped.

“If you’d been wrong he’d have died!” Jesse snarled.

“I wasn’t wrong!” Harry insisted, as though angrier at having his hypothesis questioned than anything else.

“You can’t know that!” Jesse argued. She was breathing hard, the steam going out of her, and Cisco could hear that she was fighting tears.

Cisco took Jesse by the arm and turned her around, to find her face blotchy and her eyes wide and wet. He pulled her into his embrace and she fastened her arms around him, clutching him tightly as she let out the first few sobs into his shoulder.

“Please don’t die,” she whispered. “I couldn’t take it if I lost you too.”

“I won’t,” Cisco whispered against her hair. “I promise.”

***

Iris had been waiting a long time for a chance to do this. She’d never particularly liked Harry, having as she did very little tolerance for rudeness on the best of days. She didn’t like the way he treated any of her friends, and least of all Cisco. When she’d walked in on Harry nearly murdering Cisco trying to access the speed force to get at Barry she’d wanted to do it, but it hadn’t been the place or time.

Here and now was the place and time.

Harry gave an extremely satisfying yelp as a wooden leg from the West family dining table -- recently destroyed in a metahuman attack -- sank into his stomach. He flung out an arm to catch himself on the doorframe, but the swing knocked him off his feet and he fell heavily to the floor. He’d have bruises around his middle for a few weeks, Iris thought with some satisfaction. Caitlin might check him over later. If she was feeling generous.

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” Harry wheezed once he had his breath back. Gingerly he got to his feet and stumbled into the room, to see all of Team Flash san Cisco and Jesse gathered in the cortex waiting for him.

“We could ask you the same thing,” Caitlin informed him coldly from her position next to Barry. Iris’s dad was leaning against a computer bank nearby, Wally stood across the room from him, and Iris had been waiting by the door.

Iris went to stand beside her brother as her father spoke next. “We need to talk Wells,” he said seriously, arms crossed over his chest.

“To what do I owe the ambush?” Harry rasped, rubbing tenderly at his midsection. He was still bent over slightly, like the impact had permanently misshapened his spine. Iris wouldn't mind if it had.

“It’s not an ambush,” Barry said calmly, to which Harry replied with a withering look. “It’s an intervention.”

“Really?” Harry challenged. “In what, exactly, are you intervening?”

“Your experiments,” Barry told him. “And, more broadly, your behavior.”

Barry stepped forward, eyes hard and determined, and Harry straightened.

“You’re out of line Wells,” Barry said firmly. “The way you’ve been treating Cisco is not cool, and today only proved that I’ve ignored this for way too long.”

“You put our friend’s life in danger,” Iris piped up, glowering at Harry.

“And really upset Jesse,” Wally chimed in. Iris wanted to roll her eyes at his ridiculous addition, but she also fought the urge to smile. Her baby brother really was smitten.

Harry gathered his anger around himself like a shield. “I have done nothing but try to help you-” he spat, but Barry interrupted him.

“No,” he countered, “we’ve done nothing but try to help you, and you’ve met our efforts with nothing but derision and abuse from day one.”

“We helped you when you needed us,” Caitlin reminded him. “You had no way to get Jesse back when you came here and roped us into your fight. Barry and Cisco went with you to save her and you never so much as thanked them!”

“He’s a superhero,” Harry said dismissively, “it’s what he does.”

“Heroes don’t just protect strangers,” Barry declared. “They protect their friends too, and I haven’t been doing that. Cisco needed protecting from you, and up to now I’ve failed him.”

Barry shook his head. “Not anymore.”

“So, what, you’re going to send me home?” Harry demanded.

“No,” Barry informed him, “you can stay on this Earth, for now. But there will be no more experiments, of any kind, on any of my friends. You will treat everyone here with respect-”

“And the next time you point a gun at someone it had damn well better be because they’ll kill you if you don’t,” Iris’s father finished for him, pointing an accusatory finger at Harry.

Harry glared at him. “That seems a little rich coming from you, West,” he sneered, “given that the first thing you did when we met was shoot at me.”

“Because he thought you were the other Wells,” Iris snapped. “As far as he knew you were a danger, to him and to everyone, so don’t you dare compare what he did to using Cisco for target practice!”

Harry continued to glare, doubtlessly remembering the other time he’d been shot at. The situations were still worlds apart though, and if he dared make the comparison Iris was fully prepared to dismantle it too.

“Ramon consented,” he tried instead.

“Not to being shot at!” Caitlin protested. Iris stepped forward, raising the table leg again, but Barry held up a hand.

“Not anymore,” Barry told him. “He’s withdrawn consent, and you’ll respect that or I’ll run you back to your own Earth myself.”

Iris looked on as Barry faced down the Earth-2 scientist, reminded once again that there was a real hero inside this man. When he cared to let it out.

“Are we clear?” Barry asked.

Harry glared at him, then huffed. “Crystal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god the next chapter's gonna be even harder than this one. fight scenes are so difficult to choreograph. *sigh*


	6. Bleeding Through

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter took longer than some of the others, but i've gotten kind of busy so my update schedule's going to be a little more spaced out.

Cisco and Jesse had only been told about the “Intervention” after the fact.

Jesse was a little annoyed about it -- she’d have liked to hit Harry with a table leg too -- but Cisco couldn’t bring himself to be anything but relieved. It wasn’t that Jesse hadn’t done a fantastic job of defending him from their Earth-2 visitors, but it meant something different coming from Barry, who’d been condoning the behavior with his silence from day one. At last, after months and months of taking Harry’s shit, the team finally had his back.

However, Cisco had also sort of expected that to be the end of it. Harry and Jessica had come to this Earth for the express purpose of running experiments on him; with that option off the table, he saw no reason why they shouldn’t just leave. They did not leave though, they stayed on Earth-1, living in STAR Labs and hanging over the daily operations of Team Flash like a bad smell. They didn’t exactly help, though occasionally one of them would offer a sarcastic comment, but they had nothing to really do, so they simply did nothing at all.

“Why are they even here?” Jesse asked Cisco one afternoon, looking up from the chessboard to glare at her doppelganger.

They were the cortex, Cisco and Jesse playing chess in one corner and Harry and Jessica clustered around a computer. It was a slow crime day, so Barry was out patrolling alone and Jesse had opted to stay in and babysit Cisco, unwilling to leave him alone with the Wellses. Harry and Jessica were on the other side of the room, but Jesse had not bothered to keep her voice down, and Jessica glanced up to shoot a glare at her before going back to whatever she was doing with her father.

“It doesn’t matter,” Cisco told her, pointedly lowering his voice so that he would not be overheard. He felt that, as the older child, he needed to set an example. “They’re not bothering us, so we have no reason to kick them out.”

“What do they want though?” Jesse wondered aloud, though she lowered her voice to match Cisco’s.

Cisco looked back down at the chess pieces. He tried to focus on the board rather than the way that Jesse and her doppelganger were trading withering looks, but it was hard to keep his attention on the game. He moved his knight, then moved it back, then moved it to a different space.

“Probably the same thing they wanted when they came,” Cisco speculated, finally taking his hand off the piece, “but it _doesn’t matter_ because they’re not going to get it.”

“Then why don’t they leave?” she hissed in annoyance. After quick glance at the board she took his knight with her queen, then went back to glaring at Jessica.

“Beats the hell out of me,” Cisco admitted, examining the board to try and figure out how she’d done that. At last he gave up and moved one of his pawns.

Before Jesse could turn around and take that piece too though, suddenly Barry was speeding into the cortex.

“Anything?” Cisco asked as Barry pulled off his cowl.

“Nothing,” Barry panted. “Everything’s quiet.”

“Too quiet?” asked Cisco and Jesse, in perfect unison.

“Way too quiet,” Barry replied, looking at them sourly. “It’s like there’s not a metahuman in Central City.”

Jesse opened her mouth to speak, likely to expound on the unlikeliness of that particular statement, when a metahuman abruptly appeared in the cortex.

Everyone in the room, Barry included, jumped as Shawna Baez burst into existence in a cloud of flesh colored smoke. She was hunched over as if trying to make herself small, her face was dirty and tear-stained, and the sleeve of her jacket was ripped. Both her wrists were bruised, and she had a hunted look in her eyes.

“Please,” she said, hoarse and a little frantic. “Please help me.”

***

It took some time to calm Shawna down. She kept teleporting fearfully across the room whenever someone tried to touch her, but eventually Caitlin persuaded her to sit down for a physical exam. She perched on the gurney, shivering violently and looking from one face to another anxiously as though waiting for someone to lunge at her at any moment. Caitlin stitched up a large cut over her eye, set and bandaged a sprained wrist, and pronounced Shawna sleep deprived and dehydrated but otherwise no worse for wear.

Exactly what that “wear” was had to wait until Caitlin was done with her examination, but eventually Shawna was sitting in a swivel chair with a large cup of orange juice and Cisco’s jacket hung around her shoulders, ready to talk.

“What happened to you?” Barry asked. Shawna had seen him without his mask, so he’d changed into his street clothes and was sitting across from her, Cisco on his left and Jesse on his right.

Shawna looked between the three of them warily. “Are you going to lock me up in that box again?”

Barry glanced at Cisco, who shrugged. “She was never violent,” he pointed out. “Iron Heights has a metahuman wing now, so there’s no reason to keep her here.”

“No!” said Shawna, eyes wide, shrinking back into her chair. “They’ll find me!”

“Who will find you?” Barry pressed.

Shawna looked at him warily. “The military guys,” she explained carefully. “They tried to snatch me off the street. They had weapons, stuff that could counteract my powers. I barely got away, and I’ve been running from them ever since.”

Cisco and Barry looked at each other. That definitely sounded familiar.

“Please,” Shawna said, looking from one face to another, desperation in her eyes. “You can’t send me to prison. They’ll find me there. I don’t want to disappear like the others!”

“Others,” Barry repeated, “what others?”

“People have been turning up missing,” she told him. “Mardon, Bivolo, metahumans like me. I know it’s those guys, and if I’m locked up somewhere-”

“The prison is safe,” Barry said firmly. “No one’s been taken from there. Every metahuman we’ve put there is still there.”

Shawna looked at him dubiously, but Barry met her gaze with a steady one of his own. “It’s not the most comfortable place in the world, but you’ll be safe there. That much I promise you.”

Grimly, Shawa nodded.

***

“So we’re all in agreement that this was Eiling?” Cisco asked once they had left Shawna alone in Caitlin’s make-shift ER, handcuffed with power-dampening restraints to the gurney but otherwise resting comfortably.

“Yeah,” said Barry, “definitely him.”

Caitlin nodded her agreement.

“Who’s Eiling?” Jessica wanted to know.

“And why are we even listening to her?” Harry added. “She’s a metahuman and a criminal.”

“You say it like those two things are equally bad,” Jesse noted, looking at him with hard eyes.

Harry didn’t respond, opting to turn his attention to Barry instead, but Jesse continued to watch him. She still didn’t know why he was still here, and she didn’t trust his motives for suddenly poking his nose into the superheroing side of things. He was up to something, she just didn’t know what.

“Eiling was doing the same thing in the other timeline,” Cisco explained. “He took metas from the prison and did experiments on them.”

“That world didn’t have a Flash though,” Barry pointed out. “It’d be harder to justify, and he hasn’t come to the prison looking for test subjects yet.”

“Better to quietly abduct them off the streets,” Iris said bitterly. “Barry, you wanna help me look into missing persons cases? We might be able to draw some attention to it, make it harder for Eiling to snatch people without anyone noticing.”

“Sure!” Barry perked up like a puppy who’d been offered a treat, and Jesse couldn’t suppress a smile. Things had been improving between Barry and Iris, just like they’d been improving between Barry and Cisco, but it seemed like Barry’s eagerness to please her wasn’t just a product of his contrition.

“But first,” Cisco interjected, looking at Iris rather than Barry, “we should have Oliver ask Lyla to check and make sure we’re right. Once we’re sure, we storm the place.”

“What?” Harry piped up, sounding genuinely confused. “You’re just going to break into a military compound?”

“Well, yeah,” Cisco said, looking at him with equal confusion.

“We’re not just going to leave all those people there,” Caitlin told him seriously.

“‘Those people’ are criminals,” Jessica said, frowning.

“We don’t know that,” Cisco argued. “We don’t know every metahuman he’s snatched. There could be innocent ones in there.”

“Besides,” Barry added, “we’ve had a friend captured by Eiling once. I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.”

He shook his head. “Those people belong in prison, not being tortured.”

Harry grumbled but sat back in his chair and said nothing, and Jessica followed suit.

One by one people began to trickle out. Barry sped out of the cortex to head for Star City, and Cisco returned to his workroom to contact Felicity for the same purpose. Iris left to begin her investigation, Caitlin assumed watch over Shawna, and Jesse decided to stay in the cortex in case Caitlin needed anything.

Harry, curiously, opted to do the same.

Jesse watched in confusion as Jessica filed out after Iris, but Harry remained behind, standing by the door with arms crossed over his chest. He watched his daughter leave, then turned to stare at Jesse, and continued to keep his gaze fixed on her until the two of them were alone.

“Can I help you?” Jesse asked bitingly when he didn’t stop his unblinking scrutiny.

Harry uncrossed his arms, then folded his hands behind his head. That didn’t seem to work for him either, because he then lowered them to hang limply at his sides. At last he put them in his pockets, shoulders hunched slightly as though uncomfortable, not taking his eyes off her all the while.

“Seriously,” Jesse said impatiently, “quit staring at me, you’re freaking me out.”

Harry did not stop staring at her. Instead he opened his mouth, closed it again, then opened it once more to take a deep breath.

“This can’t be easy for you,” he said, and his voice had the same gentle, pleasant tone he used when speaking to Jessica. There was something off about it though, something subtly strange, and it made Jesse deeply uncomfortable.

“What can’t be easy?” she snapped.

“Seeing me, especially with my Jesse,” Harry continued, voice still gentle and not in the least impatient. “After everything that’s happened, I mean.”

“You mean after you tried to kill my brother?” Jesse crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, it’s pretty hard to even look at the two of you still making yourselves cozy in our lab.”

Harry laughed, honestly _laughed,_ then gave her a look best described as pitying. “No,” he clarified, still maddeningly patient. “I meant with the timeline.”

“What are you getting at?” Jesse asked. She didn’t like where this was going.

“You’ve lost everything,” Harry made a sweeping gesture with one hand. “Your timeline, your mother . . . your father.”

“Get to your point Harry,” Jesse bit out. She had a feeling she knew it already, but some part of her didn’t believe even he would stoop this low.

“My point,” he said, almost imploringly, “is that you need . . . comfort. Now, I know I’m not him-”

“No,” Jesse cut him off, and she was surprised at how her voice actually shook with rage. “You’re not him. You’re nothing like him, and you will never be a fraction of the man he was.”

Harry frowned, looking at her in genuine concern as Jesse stood up from her chair, hands balled into fists at her sides. She felt like she could barely contain the indignation inside of her; she trembled with it.

“My father was a brilliant inventor who wanted to make the world a better place,” Jesse told him. “You’re a two-bit hack who ruins people’s lives and calls it science. Do not presume to compare yourself to him.”

Harry closed his eyes, then opened them again. “We have more in common then you-”

“You have nothing in common!” Jesse spat. “He was your superior in every way! My father was good. My father was kind-”

“I have _never_ been unkind to Jesse,” Harry interjected, and finally the patience in his voice was wearing thing. Good. Now he could feel how Jesse felt, having her father equated with this monster.

“My father was kind to _everyone_ ,” Jesse told him. “He took Hartley and Cisco in and made them my brothers because they needed him.”

“Ramon is not your brother,” Harry snapped.

“You’re not our father!” Jesse yelled.

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Jesse had had enough. “Get out!” she screamed gesturing at the door.

Harry hesitated a moment, looking like he wanted to argue the point further, but then he shook his head and huffed as though in disgust. He turned on his heel and stormed out of the cortex, leaving Jesse fuming behind him.

***

Hartley Rathaway had always had an interesting relationship with Team Flash. At first his feelings toward them had been nothing but rage; they were Wells’ pets, clearly being used for evil but also occupying a position that Hartley would never admit he dearly missed. He’d been prepared to kill them all until the incident with the Time Wraith, at which point their relationship became more of a shaky truce. This foundation had gone from shaky to firm, and then from a truce to an alliance to something like friendship. He’d almost felt like one of the team when they’d called him to help them defeat Wells -- or Thawne, whoever he was -- but honestly he wasn’t cut out for superhero work, so he didn’t stick around.

He’d almost had a heart attack when Cisco, his first real friend and still the person he talked to most outside of work, had told him his strange metahuman powers had allowed him to remember a timeline where Hartley had gone through with his plan to hurt Barry. He’d been afraid Cisco would reject him, but Cisco merely reassured him that he knew Hartley was different now. Hartley had tried to be as comforting as he could, knowing that Cisco’s powers were frightening and often painful, but Cisco had merely wanted to talk about it with someone who wasn’t Barry, and Hartley happily gave him that.

When Cisco had called him up again and told him that Barry had once more altered the timeline, creating a version of their lives in which they’d been close friends, nearly brothers, for a long time, Hartley had been caught between exasperated and intrigued. Barry really needed to quit messing with time travel, but this alternate timeline? A life where he and Cisco had been friends from the beginning? Where he hadn’t spent so much time hung up on appearances? As much as being “like brothers” with Cisco gave him a slight pain in his heart, it was a timeline much preferable to this one.

There was also, however, a girl named Jesse, who had apparently been like a sister to him. She now found herself trapped in an unfamiliar timeline, without her blood relatives or her found family, and Hartley couldn’t help but feel sorry for that. He’d agreed to take on whatever memories of that timeline Cisco could conjure for him, but the thought of Jesse so alone until then didn’t sit well with him, and less so with each passing day.

So, when Cisco had called him up for an operation to infiltrate a military base with both himself and Jesse, there had only been one possible answer.

“So,” said Hartley, stepping into the once-familiar cortex, which strangely contained only Jesse and Cisco, “where is everyone?”

“Hartley!” Jesse leaped up, grinning widely, but her eyes were just a little sad. She remembered, this time, that he wasn’t the Hartley she knew.

“Jesse,” Hartley said politely, trying to sound friendly but probably only coming across as nervous.

Cisco laughed a little through his nose, then stood up. “Thanks for coming man,” he said, holding out a hand, and Hartley shook it eagerly. The reflexive action calmed his nerves, though the touch of Cisco’s hand made his inside squirm pleasantly, as it always did.

He wondered if that was why Cisco always shook his hand whenever they saw each other, then nipped that idea in the bud. Cisco was straight, after all.

“Iris and Joe can’t really help, so they’re working a missing person case,” Cisco explained. “Caitlin’s in there-” he jerked his thumb at Caitlin’s workroom, “-with a . . . patient, so we’re just waiting on Barry.”

“Aren’t we always?” Hartley remarked, then fought the urge to wince. Had that been rude?

It seemed not, because Jesse and Cisco both laughed. Hartley smiled, deciding he liked the sound of Jesse laughing almost as much as he liked Cisco’s laugh. He liked it in a different way though, a simpler, uncomplicated way. For a moment he stood there, enjoying the feeling of liking a sound. It had gotten very rare for him.

Hartley took a deep breath. He’d already made a decision about what he was going to say when he next saw Jesse, and with no one around but her and Cisco now was the perfect time.

“Jesse-” he began, but when she looked at him his brain stalled. _Come on Rathaway,_ he grumbled at himself. _You want this._

“I’ve been thinking,” he forced out, “about the alternate timeline. The one where you came from, where I was your-” he couldn’t say it, he couldn’t say brother, not yet “-friend.”

Jesse looked concerned, but Cisco was looking at him with wide, surprised eyes. Hartley concentrated on that expression, concentrated on how he wanted to do this. For Cisco and Jesse both.

“I want my memories back,” he told her, “but I don’t _just_ want them back. When I remember, I don’t want to know that I left you alone for months, maybe years while in the meantime.”

Jesse’s face took on a sad expression. “Hartley,” she said gently, “I’m not alone, really-”

“It’s not just that,” Hartley shook his head. “It’s, well, you can’t say you’re the same person now that you were then. You’ve changed.”

“Yeah,” Jesse admitted.

“So, I want to know the person you are now,” Hartley told her, hoping that sounded less ridiculous than the only other way he could think of to say it. “I want to know you.”

“Aw,” Cisco cooed, grinning maniacally. “Is this your way of saying you wanna make friends?”

“Yes, Cisco,” Hartley rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t keep the smile off his face, “if you must put it like an after school special, then yes, I want to make friends.”

He closed his eyes, waiting for one of them to laugh at him, but abruptly something collided with his chest and wrapped around him tightly. He opened his eyes in shock and confusion, to find that Jesse had thrown her arms around him.

Cisco, at that point, laughed, although Hartley would wager it had more to do with Hartley's current expression than with his previous declaration. He walked the few steps over to the two of them and put a hand on Hartley’s shoulder, sending goosebumps shooting along his arm at the contact.

“Welcome to Team Flash dude.”

***

In hindsight, they really should have been tipped off by how easy it was to break into the base.

Between Barry and Jesse they were able to speed past most obstacles, even with Hartley and Cisco in tow. Locked doors weren’t much of a challenge when put up against the two engineers, and Hartley had programmed his power gloves with a special frequency that put any guards they encountered instantly to sleep.

The real challenge was finding where the prisoners were being held. If Shawna was to be believed then Eiling had a large number of metahumans stashed somewhere in the compound, but unless they were scattered all over then there would have to be some kind of large holding facility. Eventually they found a control room, and Cisco was able to hack into one of the computers.

“I’m going to bring up a schematic of the building,” Cisco explained as Barry set Jesse and Hartley to watching the door. “Containing that many metas is going to take an insane amount of power, so wherever most of the juice is being used-”

“That’s where everyone is being held,” Barry concluded, clapping Cisco on the shoulder.

A few keystrokes later and Cisco had an answer.

“Looks like there’s a massive amount of power going to the lowest sub-level,” he called.

“Then that’s where we’re going too,” Barry said, then seized Cisco’s arm and dragged him from the room.

It was always a surreal experience being carried somewhere by a speedster. The wind rushing by his face, the twists and turns coming much too fast for any normal human to predict, the sinking feeling in his stomach that told Cisco he was going to die at any moment. He was used to it, but Hartley wasn’t, and every time they stopped he heard the other boy retch just a little.

Perhaps for this reason the two speedsters took pity on the two non-speedsters and opted to use the elevator to get downstairs. They had the entire ride to get their breath back and choke down whatever was threatening to come up, so by the time the doors opened on the deepest room in the compound the four of them were relatively composed.

Too bad there was no one there to see it.

“What?” Jesse asked no one in particular as they stepped out into a perfectly empty concrete bunker.

“I don’t know,” Barry replied, looking around in confusion at the barren walls and unmarked floor. There was nothing there, not even an empty crate, and as they walked toward the center of the room they could peer into the shadows at the back and found nothing there either.

Then, from some unseen speaker, or perhaps several, the most hideous possible noise began to play.

Dimly Cisco wondered if it had anything to do with his vibration powers that he could pick out three distinct frequencies being played over one another. Two of them he recognized, but only by their effects. As soon as the noise began Hartley’s power gloves exploded, leaving him kneeling on the ground moaning and clutching his bleeding hands. Then Barry fell to all fours, blood trickling from his ears and dribbling from his open mouth.

The new frequency, though, seemed to have been designed for Jesse.

Cisco screamed “No!” when she fell, collapsing on the floor with her hands over her ears. She cried out, curling in on herself, and Cisco ran to her, kneeling at her side.

“Jesse!” he cried, shaking her, but she didn’t respond. All she could hear was the frequency currently shearing her organs apart.

“Well well well,” came a familiar smug, satisfied voice. “Look what I have here: three metahumans and a new engineer. It’s my lucky day, wouldn’t you say so?”

“Eiling!” Cisco called. “Shut it off! You’re killing them!”

“They can take this and a lot more,” Eiling said unconcernedly. “The frequencies have to be played at a much higher intensity to really damage them.”

“How do you know that?” Cisco demanded. “How did you even know about those frequencies!”

“I told him,” said a voice from behind him.

Cisco jolted, then spun around on his knees to find Eobard Thawne entering the room at a leisurely walk. The mere sight of him there, framed in the elevator, gave Cisco a violent flashback to the timeline where Thawne had killed him, but he forced the vibe down. This was no time to be incapacitated by a vision.

“You?” Cisco said in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

“Offering help to my new friend,” Eobard replied easily. He was smiling, a pleased little smile that made Cisco sick to his stomach.

“You’re friends with Eiling now?” Cisco asked. “Since when?”

“Since he began collecting metahumans,” Eobard explained as he approached. “Some might say I’m merely one of his collection, but I’m offering him something a little more useful than anything his experiments might reveal.”

“Why?” Cisco demanded. “What’s in it for your? What’s he offering you that you couldn’t get yourself?”

Eobard shrugged. “Both the Flash and Jesse Quick out of way is certainly a start. He’s graciously agreed to sweeten the deal though.”

“With what?” Cisco wanted to know.

Eobard reached where Cisco was kneeling and bent over him, so that he could whisper and still be heard over the noise.

“The spoils of war,” he said softly, holding Cisco’s gaze as he spoke.

Cisco closed his eyes. He was about to die. If he didn’t die, then he’d be taken along with Barry and Jesse to be subjected to sadistic medical experiments. Hartley would be forced into making weapons for Eiling, maybe Caitlin too, if no one was there to protect her. He might never see any of them again, might live out his days in a cold, dark cell and never lay eyes on his friends or his family. It was too much, it was all too much, and-

Cisco felt something inside him explode. It was like his heart was racing so fast it burst out of his chest, like a piece of him just escaped the borders of his skin and broke free. It radiated out of him, sweeping through the entire room and knocking Thawne off his feet. There was an angry static noise and suddenly all three frequencies cut out, and Barry and Jesse sucked in air as their lungs stopped fighting their breath. Cisco immediately turned his attention to Jesse as she coughed and opened her eyes.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

Jesse smiled weakly, then nodded.

Barry got up slowly and looked around, his eyes widening as they fell on the wall with the elevator. Cisco turned, to see that Thawne had hit the wall and slid down it, and was now laying motionless on the floor.

Distantly Cisco could hear the sound of combat boots on concrete, but Jesse was sitting up as well. Hartley was still injured, but Jesse grabbed him while Barry grabbed Cisco.

“Time to go,” Barry said simply, and suddenly the wind was rushing all around him. Hallway after hallway flashed past, until he could look up to the ceiling and see stars above him.

They were outside. They were free.

***

Just like she had the first time Eobard had injured him, Caitlin bandaged Hartley’s damaged hands. Barry and Jesse’s injuries resolved themselves quickly, and despite facing off against the Reverse Flash Cisco was miraculously unhurt, so eventually they all sat defeated but mostly whole around the cortex.

“So,” said Barry wearily, cutting through the melancholic silence. “Sneak attack; bad idea.”

“And largely pointless,” Jesse pointed out.

“Oh come on, it was worth a try,” Barry protested.

“There was no other level of the compound that was drawing enough power to contain a large number of metahumans,” Cisco informed him. “Eiling’s prisoners weren’t even there.”

“If there are any prisoners at all,” Caitlin piped up. “Are we sure Shawna was telling the truth?”

“She let us transfer her to Iron Heights with no objections,” Barry defended.

“And Thawne told us that Eiling was collecting metas,” Cisco added. “Iris and Joe are making headway; he’s abducting people, we just don’t know where he’s putting them.”

“There’s also the fact that Thawne and Eiling are now working together to consider,” Hartley chimed in. He looked around at the group. “Thanks for letting me know he was back, by the way.”

Cisco winced. With everything else going on it had slipped his mind to tell Hartley that the Reverse Flash had escaped his interdimensional paradox prison when Barry had created the alternate timeline. He supposed some part of him had been hoping Thawne would just leave them alone after getting his ass handed to him by the combined powers of the Flash and Jesse Quick.

No such luck.

“What does he want, by the way?” Hartley glanced around the room again. “To go back to his future, still? Or has he settled for killing us all?”

“Well his speed’s back up to time-travel capacity,” Barry told him, “so he doesn’t need our help to get home anymore.”

“Why is he still here then?” Caitlin wondered.

“He wants to kill me and Jesse at least, but as for the rest of it . . .” Barry gave a grand, dramatic shrug.

“And Eiling is just a psycho who wants to experiment on metas for fun and profit,” Cisco concluded, with forced cheer. “This just gets better and better!”

Eventually Barry got a call from Iris about a lead and zipped off to meet her somewhere. With Shawna gone and Hartley adequately patched up Caitlin had no reason not to go home and get some rest, so she pleaded exhaustion and left Jesse, Cisco and Hartley in the cortex.

“So,” Hartley said, once the three of them were alone. “That’s quite the power you’ve got there Cisco.”

Cisco nodded. Barry had made the same observation while Hartley was being treated by Caitlin, but Cisco wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. He appreciated the sentiment behind it, really he did, but like all his powers he didn’t even know if he wanted this new one. He flexed his fingers, examining his hand as the muscles moved beneath the skin, trying to find some indication that it was different. He found none.

“Hey,” said Jesse, putting a hand on his shoulder, “what’s wrong?”

Cisco shrugged, shaking his head in confusion. “I’m not sure,” he confessed “It’s just . . . this is kinda heavy, don’t you think?”

“You did a good thing today,” Hartley reminded him. “You saved everyone-”

He tossed his head, looking his usual haughty self from this timeline, and it almost put Cisco at ease.

“-even me,” he admitted grudgingly.

Cisco heaved a sigh, and while there was weariness and a touch of anxiety in it, there was also relief. This was a good thing. He’d saved people. He’d been a hero. He didn’t know how or why, but his powers had gotten stronger, and he would help even more people in the future.

One person in particular came to mind.

He looked up at Hartley. “You wanna try something?”

Hartley blinked. “Try what?” he asked.

Cisco stood, then beckoned to Jesse and Hartley to follow him.

“No!” said Jesse firmly when they’d emerged into the room where Harry and Jessica had been running their experiments. “No no no, we are not doing this again!”

“Doing what?” Hartley demanded in alarm.

“Nothing bad,” Cisco assured him hurriedly, making his way over to the control panel where the device used to electrically stimulate his prefrontal cortex had been tossed haphazardly among the buttons and dials.

“This is dangerous,” Jesse insisted, “you almost died last time!”

“That’s because I was accessing the speed force,” Cisco explained. “This time I’m not going to be trying to open a breach; I’m just going to try and get a vibe.”

He pulled the Vibe Goggles from his pocket and waved them demonstratively in front of Jesse’s face. Jesse still looked worried, but she didn’t protest as Cisco crowned himself in wires and put the goggles on. Then he held out a hand to Hartley.

“If this works,” he explained, “I should be able to pull you into the vibe with me, just like I pulled Iris into the speed force.”

Hartley nodded and took his hand, and Cisco reached out his other hand for Jesse.

“There’s no better focal object for the other timeline than you,” he said at her perplexed look. “I’m just the vehicle; you’re driving.”

Jesse looked nervously between Hartley and Cisco for another moment. Then she reached out and flicked on Cisco’s goggles, and took his hand.

This vibe was unlike any Cisco had experienced before. It didn’t suck him in completely, so that he was unaware of his surroundings; he could still feel Jesse and Hartley with him, although he couldn’t see them. In front of him was a stage, one he remembered all too well, and on it were three performers.

“It’s Open Mic Night,” he whispered.

“What?” said Hartley’s voice, coming from the point relative to his own position where Hartley had been standing.

“It’s the first night we performed for an audience besides Tess and Harrison,” Cisco told him. “We’re singing a song from _Phineas and Ferb._ ”

“From who?” Hartley asked, sounding extremely confused.

Cisco’s heart sank, and despair settled heavy in his stomach. Apparently he hadn’t gotten that strong. Hartley couldn’t see the vibe.

“ _My baby’s got his own way of talkin’,”_ sang the Jesse on stage, “ _whenever he says something sweet.”_

“ _And he knows it’s my world he’s a-rockin’,”_ her Hartley sang with her, the two of them harmonizing beautifully.

Cisco’s lips parted as he prepared to mouth along to his part, but as he lip-sang, “Though my vocabulary’s incomplete! _”_ he suddenly became aware that it was not just the Jesse on stage that was singing. Jesse’s voice came from off to his left, from the real world outside the vibe, but she was singing along to her counterpart’s voice perfectly.

“I know it may sound confusing,” Jesse sang, “sometimes I wish he’d give it to me straight! But I never feel like I’m losing-”

“Losing,” said a voice off to Cisco’s left.

In the infinity of the pause between beats Cisco’s heart leaped. That had not been Hartley’s part, it had been his, but that had definitely been Hartley’s voice, singing soft and unsure along with a song he claimed he didn’t know.

“When I take the time to translate!” Jesse crowed triumphantly, and then all of them, all _three_ of them, launched into the chorus.

“Bow chicka bow wow,” Jesse began.

“That’s what my baby said,” the boys called in response.

“Mow mow mow!”

“And my heart starts pumpin’.”

“Chicka-chicka choo whop!”

“Never gonna stop!”

“Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!” all three of them sang. The vibe disintegrated around Cisco until he was once again in STAR Labs, facing a grinning Jesse and a shocked looking Hartley.

“I remember that,” Hartley realized, looking excited and confused and a little terrified. “Not just the Open Mic Night, but that _song._ I remember hearing it for the first time, I remember practicing in the garage-”

“What else?” Jesse pressed eagerly.

Hartley’s face fell. “That’s it,” he admitted.

Cisco put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll do more,” he said. “Now that we know this works we can show you other stuff. Just-” he clutched at his head as it throbbed painfully, “-not tonight, okay?”

Hartley wanted to watch _Phineas and Ferb_ again, so the three of them agreed to go back to the manor and stay up all night making use of the netflix account. Once they were outside however the cold air hit Cisco hard, making him realize he’d left his jacket in the cortex. He told the two of them to get in the car, and ran back inside to grab it.

When he reached the cortex though, he found his jacket slung carelessly over Harry’s shoulder.

“Can I, uh, have that back?” Cisco asked, holding out his hand for it.

Harry smiled pleasantly, the creepy, satisfied smile he used when he wasn’t necessarily happy, but he was about to get his way. He did not give Cisco his jacket, but rather strode carelessly toward the center of the cortex, closer to where Cisco stood in the doorway.

“I thought you and I could have a little chat first,” Harry said conversationally.

“Got nothing to say to you,” Cisco replied, holding out one hand for his jacket.

Harry ignored him. “You know, I honestly thought the way forward was through your Jesse,” he said, as though Cisco hadn’t spoken. “I thought if I persuaded her to trust me you’d fall in line. But you-” he huffed a laugh, “-you’re your own man, aren’t you?”

“I care about Jesse’s opinion,” was all the Cisco felt confident saying after that convoluted speech. He wasn’t sure what it was Harry was trying say about him, but he didn’t like any of it.

“But you know the value of your powers,” Harry continued pointedly. “You’ve thought about them, what they can really do. What they can do for you.”

He grinned, and Cisco felt cold fear settle in the pit of his stomach.

“What they can do for your friend Hartley.”

Cisco’s eyes went wide with realization. “You were watching.”

Harry nodded. “Mm-hm.”

“You saw me using my powers to help him remember the other timeline,” Cisco went on.

“That’s right,” Harry confirmed.

“And you honestly think,” Cisco said, the beginnings of a smile spreading over his face, “that I’d be desperate enough to get his memories back that I’d let you torture me to your vile little heart’s content?”

Harry’s face fell, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion, and Cisco laughed.

“Look, dude,” Cisco said, still grinning, “good try, but that nice guy act didn’t work on Jesse and it won’t work on me.”

“It’s not an act Ramon,” Harry said sourly, “it’s called being reasonable. I need to understand how your powers work, you need to get strong enough to help your friend. Working together is the only logical solution.”

“I know how to help Hartley,” Cisco argued. “I know how to do this now, and the only way to get better at it is to practice.”

“I could help you-” Harry began, but Cisco cut him off.

“Not a chance,” he said. “Hartley will wait as long as I need him to to get his memories back, because he cares about me. He won’t push me farther than I want to go, and he won’t ask me for things I can’t give. He respects me.”

“Is that what you want?” Harry snapped. “My respect? Earn it Ramon, stop acting like a child-”

“Which one of us is bitching because he didn’t get his way?” Cisco protested. “You’re a joke Harry, you’ve always been a joke. The only difference now is, I get it.”

Cisco walked calmly into Harry’s space and plucked his jacket from the older man’s slack hands.

“Actually,” he said as he turned to go, “it’s kind of funny.”

With that he left the cortex, leaving Harry gaping after him.

***

Harrison Wells, who refused to think of himself as ‘Harry’ no matter how many times Cisco drilled the nickname into him, had never been one to accept defeat. All problems had solutions, it was simply a matter of finding the correct means of dealing with situation. Nothing was impossible, the metahumans he himself had created proved that, so there was no reason he couldn’t do whatever he needed to for his latest endeavor to come to fruition.

Cisco Ramon and his foster-sister, the doppelganger of Harrison’s own daughter, were proving to be a problem that resisted solving. They refused to see reason, to think logically about the situation, so he had no means of coercing them into compliance. Threatening them was also off the table, both of them being powerful metahumans with very little of value that they could not adequately defend, and he had always found that practice distasteful anyway. There was no clear way forward, and he felt helpless.

Harrison hated feeling helpless, and he hated Cico and the Other Jesse for making him feel helpless, and he hated this Earth and everything on it for being a place where he so consistently felt helpless.

Jesse had gone to bed -- she had been sleeping more since their return to this Earth, he’d have to talk to her about that -- but Harrison couldn’t bring himself to lay down, so he opted to go for a walk instead. The night air was bracing as he stepped outside and he thought a few laps of the lab would do him good. The darkness of the street didn’t bother him, and it didn’t even occur to him to be afraid until he felt a hand closing around his throat.

The ground disappeared beneath his feet, and suddenly the whole world was a blur of colors and a rush of wind. He tried to cry out, but the wind whipped the sound from his throat until he might as well have been yelling into the void.

When he, or rather _they_ , came to a stop, they were inside one of the service tunnels underneath the particle accelerator. Harrison was thrown unceremoniously into a chair, still reeling from the journey, and he struggled to bring the world back into focus. When the image in front of him finally resolved itself, his reaction could have been nothing but cold, unambiguous fear.

Standing over him was a man identical to him in every way. It was the Harrison Wells of this universe, or rather the man who had been impersonating him. This was the man who had made the entirety of Team Flash hate him on sight, the man who was responsible for so many deaths and who still struck fear into their hearts.

The Reverse Flash.

“You,” Harrison said hoarsely.

“Me,” Reverse Flash said, a slight grin tugging at his mouth.

“I heard that you were back,” Harrison tried for nonchalance and thought he managed it quite well. “Didn’t think I would be your first target for a kidnapping; I’ll tell you right now, they won’t do me any favors.”

Reverse Flash smiled wider, a horrible smile devoid of all warmth. “Oh no,” he said simply, “this isn’t a kidnapping.”

Harrison swallowed. There was only one other thing it could be.

“Then get it over with,” he rasped. He wasn’t afraid to die; he had so little to go back to, on his Earth, and he knew Team Flash wouldn’t allow an innocent like Jesse to come to harm, no matter how abrasive the two of them had been. He refused to show this man fear.

“What’s your hurry?” Reverse Flash raised an eyebrow. “We have all night.”

“You intend to torture me?” Harrison asked. “Why? For what purpose?”

Reverse Flash flung out his arms in a grandiose gesture of unconcern. “Satisfaction. Revenge. My own personal enjoyment.”

“Revenge,” Harrison repeated. “Revenge for what?”

“You’ve been using my things,” Reverse Flash informed him. “I did not give you permission to use my things.”

“What, you mean the lab?” Harrison asked, perplexed.

“Cisco and Caitlin,” Reverse Flash clarified. “They are not yours to use, abuse and discard like broken toys.”

His gazed bored into Harrison, a dangerous look in his eyes. “Cisco in particular is worth far more than to be tortured by the likes of you.”

Harrison couldn’t suppress a laugh. “So this,” he gestured between himself and the Reverse Flash, “is about him?”

The Reverse Flash smiled cruelly, and Harrison dropped his hand. Yes, this was about Ramon. Of all the stupid things he’d done that he might have paid for with his life, it was being less than patient with a random kid.

“I’ve thought long and hard about how you should die,” Reverse Flash told him conversationally. “I thought about killing your daughter in front of you first-”

“No!” Harrison gasped, his heart jolting in fear. Would this man really kill Jesse? Was Allen or Ramon in any position to stop him if he tried? Would she really be made to pay for what he had done?

Reverse Flash shook his head. “Lucky for you,” he said, “that’s not my style. The girl hasn’t wronged me, and she’s not in my way; I have no reason to kill her.”

Harrison let out a shuddering breath. Jesse, at least, was safe.

“No,” Reverse Flash went on, “I’ve come up with a more fitting punishment.”

He raised one hand, and before Harrison’s eyes it began to vibrate.

“I’m going to use the very action you mocked and imitated to cause my Cisco pain,” he declared, “to kill you.”

Harrison closed his eyes rather than stare death in the face. Helplessness settled over him like a smothering blanket, sapping his strength to even scream in fear or pain. He had nothing left, no cards to play and no hope of escape or prolonging his miserable life for another moment.

All he had left was his curiosity.

“Cisco and Caitlin,” he asked, even as Reverse Flash held his hand aloft. “What are they to you?”

Reverse Flash drove his hand straight through Harrison’s heart, and through the pain in his chest he nearly missed the answer.

“The spoils of war.”


	7. The Professor

Despite how close Jesse, Cisco and Hartley had been in the other timeline, Cisco was always aware that he had showed up late to their party. Hartley and Jesse had known each other for years before they’d welcomed him into their little world, and while he knew he’d always have a place there, the bond between Hartley and Jesse was special. Cisco might have been a child prodigy like Jesse, whereas Hartley had used the time he might have spent breezing through school studying music and languages, but Jesse and Hartley had both been raised in the science world, by parents who indulged and encouraged their academic pursuits. There was a refined intellectualism to both of them that Cisco simply lacked.

Hence the reason why he was just watching in fascination as Hartley and Jesse played chess, rather than trying to ask questions.

“King’s pawn three,” Jesse narrated helpfully as she moved a piece, although Cisco hadn’t the first clue what that could mean.

“Are you going to try bishop to queen’s rook seven next?” Hartley mocked, not bothering to call out his move for Cisco’s benefit.

“ _Sport’s Night,_ ” Cisco realized.

“Bishop to queen’s rook seven,” Jesse said, barely glancing at the board to look where she was putting the piece as she stared Hartley down with a raised eyebrow.

“The show never went into how that strategy worked,” Hartley reminded her.

Jesse shrugged. “Maybe I figured it out.”

He smirked at her, but he made his move and they kept playing.

Hartley hadn’t exactly come to work at STAR Labs again, but he was spending more and more of his free time there. He had the day off today, so he’d decided to spend it doing something he and Jesse had enjoyed in the alternate timeline, and was planning to stay all day and then lend a hand with patrol. There was a time when Hartley chiming into the coms with solutions to the latest metahuman problem would have made Cisco feel threatened, but now he was just glad there was someone else there to help keep Jesse safe.

A few moves which Cisco didn’t follow later Hartley began frowning at the board, but a few moves after that he smiled knowingly up at Jesse.

“You think you’re going to back me into a corner like that?” he asked condescendingly.

“Looks to me like you’re between a rock and a hard place,” Jesse fluttered her lashes coyly.

“ _A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi_ ,” said an all too familiar voice from the doorway. All three of them whipped around, to see Harry striding into the cortex with a smile on his face.

“It’s a latin expression,” he went on at Hartley’s shocked look. “It means-”

“I know Latin, thank you,” Hartley snapped, looking paler than normal, like he’d seen a ghost.

One of the reasons, indeed the main reason, Hartley had decided to keep his day job rather than spend all of his time with Jesse and Cisco was Harry. Hartley simply couldn’t get over his resemblance to the Dr. Wells that had betrayed them, and given that Harry made no move to respect anyone’s trauma Hartley had simply opted to avoid him rather than have his wounds poked and prodded for someone else’s selfish gain. He looked at Harry now with nothing short of disgust, with the simmering animosity he normally reserved for raging homophobes.

“My apologies,” Harry said, smiling placidly.

All three of them blinked at him in surprise. Had Harry just been . . . polite?

Cisco shook himself. Of course Harry was being polite; he still thought his Nice Guy routine was the key to getting Cisco to agree to more dangerous experiments. Not the best strategy, but it seemed it was all that he had at the moment. Cisco glared, but Harry met his gaze with the same easygoing smile. It looked almost like the one he used for Jessica, but milder, less intense. With Jessica his smile looked almost desperate to show its happiness, but this smile was more relaxed, more comfortable in subtlety.

It was creepy. Cisco didn’t like it at all.

“Good morning Cisco,” Harry greeted cheerfully, completely ignoring the other two.

Cisco frowned. “Did you just call me by my first name?”

“What’s so strange about that?” Harry asked innocently, as though he had no idea why Cisco was confused.

Cisco frowned harder. “Uh, you _never_ use my first name?”

“Why not?” Harry wanted to know. “We’re all friends here, aren’t we?”

“No,” Hartley said bluntly.

“What do you want?” Jesse demanded.

Harry shrugged unconcernedly. “To offer my assistance.”

“With?” Jesse prompted, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

“Whatever you need,” Harry said simply.

“Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, doing something with Jessica?” Cisco asked tiredly. Being around Harry was exhausting, especially when he was being so tedious.

“Jessica?” Harry repeated, feigning confusion.

“Pretending you don’t know who I’m talking about is not going to make me change your daughter’s nickname, _Harry_ ,” Cisco told him firmly.

“Ah,” said Harry, as though in sudden understanding. “My daughter. Well, she doesn’t need me at the moment, but-”

“We don’t need your help either, thanks,” Jesse said sourly.

Harry nodded gracefully to her. He turned to go, but before he could leave suddenly Barry sped into the cortex.

“Dr. Wells!” he said excitedly. “Just the guy I was looking for.”

The mild expression slid off Harry’s face like a stone. “Mr. Allen,” he said, in a voice that sounded much more like himself, grumpy and unpleasant.

“I need your help with something,” Barry told him. “I need you to-”

“I’m busy,” Harry said curtly, glaring openly at him.

Barry frowned, and Cisco frowned along with him. Barry being the most powerful meta on Earth-1 and the leader of Team Flash meant that Harry was generally civil to him at the very least, using his first name far more often than Cisco’s and generally acting more the part of the mentor around him. He was talking to Barry now the way he usually talked to Cisco, cold and dismissive.

“Okay,” said Barry, a little more cautiously. “When’s good for-”

“Why don’t you ask Cisco,” Harry suggested, sounding annoyed. “His skills are more than equal to my own, and his loyalty to you is absolutely staggering.”

Everyone in the room was now staring at Harry with wide eyes. Calling Cisco by his first name was one thing, but saying something _nice_ about him?

“Did you just pay me a compliment?” Cisco asked dubiously.

Harry turned to him, his expression softening again. “I can take it back if you like,” he said, but his eyes were twinkling with warmth, not a trace of cruelty or mocking.

Cisco blinked. “Thank you,” he said stiltedly, the words feeling strange in his mouth.

Harry gave him another oddly gentle smile. “You’re welcome, Cisco,” he said, then turned and brushed past Barry on his way out of the cortex.

***

Infiltrating Team Flash by impersonating his doppelganger was proving a little more difficult than Eobard had anticipated.

The Earth-2 counterpart of Harrison Wells -- _Harry_ , according to Cisco -- clearly did not occupy the same position that Eobard had held before him. He was not the father figure Eobard had been, serving to gently help and encourage each member of the team to realize their potential. It was a wonder they had gotten anything done, with such an obviously abrasive personality serving as little more than a distraction from their carefully balanced teamwork. If Harry had paid any attention to a member of the team it had been Barry, the person who deserved it the least, and he had ignored the needs of Cisco and Caitlin, who had been under no obligation to help him but had done so anyway despite his treatment of them.

No, Harry was not the leader that Eobard had been. He could not simply slide back into his old role like a comfortable sweater; the position he had filled no longer existed. He would have to recreated it, rebuild the trust his team had placed in him, from the ground up. Not even from the ground up, he thought bitterly to himself, as Harry had spent the last year digging himself into a hole with his abusive behavior.

Eobard had heard Cisco telling his Jesse about what Harry had done to him. Insults, violence, forcibly outting him in front of the team before he was ready and shamelessly taking advantage of his powers without helping him to properly explore or develop them. If there was one thing Eobard was genuinely sorry for it was that he had not been there to guide Cisco through growing and understanding his powers, when Eobard had put so much time and energy into helping Barry with his. Cisco deserved more than a pale imitation of the guidance Barry had been gifted with. He deserved so much better.

Eobard could give him so much better.

Hartley, as ever, presented a problem, as did this new Jesse. Whether they realized it or not they had closed ranks around Cisco the moment Eobard had entered the room, and Jesse at least spent most if not all of her time at his side. He would have to go through them to get to Cisco, and that was proving to be a difficult task while impersonating the man who hurt him.

It hurt, seeing that look of wariness on his Cisco’s face when he looked at him. Eobard reminded himself that the look was for his doppelganger, but he was under no illusion that it would be any different if Cisco knew who he was. He had lost his Cisco’s trust, and the trust of his Caitlin, and earning that back would take time. He would need to go slowly, plan his moves carefully, be patient with them.

Eobard Thawne was nothing if not patient.

He considered beginning with Caitlin, as it seemed Harry hadn’t scarred her quite as badly, but the truth of the matter was that Cisco needed him. The boy was coming into his powers quickly, and it wasn’t fair to ask him to do it with no guidance whatsoever. Eobard had his work cut out for him, but he was more than up to the task.

He waited for the afternoon, for the obvious shock of his earlier visit to wear off, before he went looking for his boy again. He had to use his speed a few times to avoid Harry’s offspring, but eventually he found Cisco in an old storage room that had apparently been converted into a training area in his absence. Hartley and Jesse were with him, and they seemed to be debating among themselves how best to awaken Cisco’s active powers.

Cisco thrust his hand out at a stack of cardboard boxes, but nothing happened and they remained stubbornly in place.

“Maybe if something was coming _at_ him he could try to repel it?” Hartley suggested, toying with the power gloves covering his hands.

“No,” Jesse snapped. “That’s too dangerous, we’re not betting his life on a power he’s never used consciously before.”

“Not something lethal,” Cisco protested. “Like, an empty box.”

“I doubt that would properly motivate you to protect yourself,” Hartley argued. “You’ve used your powers three times, while fighting Black Siren and the Reverse Flash. An empty box doesn’t pose quite the same threat.”

“Might I make a suggestion?” inquired Eobard, speaking into the microphone on the control panel of the raised platform in the center of the room, obviously meant for observing and conducting training sessions.

All three children whirled around.

“No,” Jesse spat, glaring up at him. “You may not.”

“I’ll keep my hands where you can see them,” Eobard joked, holding both hands in the air. He hoped that his playfulness might put Cisco at some semblance of ease, might remind him of the way things used to be, before uncovered secrets had made them complicated.

“Did you stash a bomb somewhere?” Jesse didn’t wait for him to answer before she began zipping around the room, checking every nook and cranny for explosives.

“I just want to talk,” Eobard assured her, once she’d finished and was standing once more beside Cisco and Hartley.

All three of the children looked at each other.

“He can’t do much damage by talking,” Hartley reasoned.

“You’d be surprised,” Cisco said bitterly.

“I say we kick him out,” Jesse suggested. “I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”

“Is that with or without a run-up?” Hartley mused.

“Guys,” Cisco interjected, “we’re out of ideas. Let’s just . . . hear what he has to say?”

Jesse glared.

“He’s out the minute he says something weird,” Cisco promised.

Jesse continued the glower, but she stepped back and turned her mutinous look on Eobard. “If this is a trick,” she called up to him, “I’m running you to the other end of the city and you and your murderer’s face can walk back.”

Eobard wrapped his hands around the microphone stand, very pointedly still in her line of sight, and smiled reassuringly at her.

“Close your eyes,” he instructed.

“No,” said Cisco and Jesse as one.

“Just for a moment,” Eobard gentled. “You need to block out the external world; the others can be your eyes for a little while.”

Jesse and Hartley looked at each other, then silently took up position on either side of Cisco like bodyguards. Cisco looked back and forth between them, then shut his eyes tightly, as though bracing himself.

“Take deep breaths,” Eobard continued. “Feel the air moving in and out of your lungs. Focus on your heartbeat, the way it pulses at the center of your body.”

“Does all of this have a point?” Cisco asked, but his eyes were still closed.

“You need to connect to the power inside you before you can use it to effect the outside world,” Eobard explained. “Now, I want you to imagine a string.”

“A string?” Cisco repeated dubiously.

“Yes, a string,” Eobard told him, careful to keep his voice even, not to laugh at Cisco’s childish resistance. “Picture it like a guitar string. When it vibrates a sound is made, sound waves moving outward from your body. That string is your power, and those soundwaves are the energy blasts you use to attack.”

He paused, but Cisco had nothing to interject. Jesse and Hartley were watching him closely, curiosity evident in both their expressions. Eobard smiled, enjoying the familiar sensation of having three children in his thrall. It would have been nice to have Caitlin here, have both her and Cisco once more under his spell, but one thing at a time.

“Now,” Eobard told him, “pluck the string. Strum it like you play the guitar, one sure flick, and then let it go.”

The effect was almost instantaneous. A full-circle blast emanated outwards from Cisco’s chest, sweeping over the room and knocking over every carefully constructed pile of empty boxes. Jesse and Hartley were both knocked back a step, and Eobard grunted as the shockwave hit him in the stomach.

“Cisco!” Hartley said excitedly once he got his footing back. “You did it!”

Cisco looked around, wide-eyed, at the damage he had caused. “I did?” he asked weakly, but then his voice grew stronger. “I mean, yes, I did!”

“How did you know how to do that?” Jesse asked Eobard suspiciously.

Eobard shrugged. “Just a theory,” he lied easily. “A meditation technique, nothing more. I’m as surprised as you by the effectiveness.”

“Amazing,” Hartley pronounced, taking one of Cisco’s hands to examine the palm. “Not even I can do a full 360 degree blast. I wonder if the effect is more concentrated when coming from a fixed point, or if there was more power behind it when you attacked Thawne in the hospital because you were so afraid?”

“I wasn’t afraid,” Cisco said defensively, but he was grinning.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hartley said dismissively, also grinning, “of course you were afraid.”

“I was afraid for Jesse,” Cisco argued.

As the two of them continued to bicker amicably Eobard looked out over the scene with a deep sense of satisfaction. Cisco’s powers were every bit as impressive as the history books claimed, and they were developing at a steady pace. With Eobard’s help Cisco would be up to full strength in no time at all, and then he would be more powerful even than Barry. After that Eobard would help Caitlin become who she was meant to be, and once he was through with that Cisco and Caitlin would trust him again.

Then they wouldn’t need Barry anymore.

***

Harry was definitely acting weird.

Under normal circumstances Jesse would have been ecstatic that he was treating Cisco better, but given that his most recent strategy to coerce them into agreeing to more experiments seemed to be worming his way into their good graces, Jesse didn’t trust his change of attitude for a second. He was polite, but that could be an act. He was patient, but that could be simple desperation. He was going out of his way to put them at ease, but that was essentially the whole point.

But this, this was more than simply catching more flies with honey than vinegar. The purpose of his experiments was to study Cisco’s powers, but he seemed to understand them already. He walked Cisco through using his vibration blasts like he knew exactly how they worked, and didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised when his ‘theory’ turned out to be correct. There was something fishy about his newfound knowledge, but Jesse couldn’t think of a dishonest means he could have come by it, so she kept her suspicions to herself.

His ‘theories’ seemed to go beyond mere meditation techniques, into the practical applications of Cisco’s powers. After training Harry had invited them to the cortex, where Caitlin had joined them, and now he was using a whiteboard to illustrate another idea he had pulled from the air about how to use the vibration blasts.

“Everything in the universe,” he explained, drawing a number of simple shapes -- square, circle triangle -- on the board, “is vibrating at its own frequency. In time you-” he nodded to Cisco, “-will be able to sense those frequencies, but until then we can calculate them for you.”

He held out a hand without turning from the board. “Tablet, please.”

Reflexively Cisco picked up a tablet off the nearest table and held it out, but Jessica beat him to it and was already at her father’s elbow. He turned, his eyes sliding over her and the proffered instrument, before turning to Cisco and accepting the tablet he was holding.

“Thank you Cisco,” he said, giving him a pleased smile.

Cisco, Jesse and Jessica all gaped at him, while Hartley and Caitlin frowned in confusion. Jessica was Harry’s child, the most important person in the world to him. When she’d been in trouble he’d traveled between dimensions to get her back, and she was the only person he would admit was even in his intellectual ballpark, let alone smarter than him.

And he had just completely ignored her.

Harry tapped the surface of the tablet a few times before turning back to the board. He drew a simple representation of sound waves coming off the square shape, then wrote the number 587 among the curved lines.

“Cisco,” he said, surprising the entire congregation, most of all Jessica, who nearly jumped. “Name something that vibrates at 587 hertz.”

“Oh,” said Jessica loudly, “the color blue!”

Harry turned to look at her with what could only be described as a look of deepest condescension.

“Is your name Cisco?” he asked, his tone patronizing.

Jessica shook her head dumbly, staring at him with wide, affronted eyes.

Harry turned to Cisco.

“Um,” Cisco stuttered, “th-the musical key of D.”

“Correct,” Harry flashed a smile before turning back to the board. As he resumed writing Cisco looked at Jesse with wide, panicked eyes, but she merely shrugged and gestured at the board. The only thing to do was to see where he was going with this.

“Say you have a piano-” Harry wrote the letter P inside the square, “-playing D-” he erased 587 with his thumb and replaced it with the letter, “-in an otherwise silent room. Once you learn to manipulate the frequency of the vibrations you emit, you could create a counter-frequency that could target not just the piano, but the specific string, and destroy it-” he turned to Cisco with an excited expression, “-while leaving the rest of the room intact.”

He grinned, waggling his eyebrows conspiratorially at Cisco, who could only stare with his mouth open in astonishment.

Jessica, on the other hand, had quite recovered from her shock and was now staring at her father with pursed lips and narrowed eyes.

“How do you know he’ll even be able to-” she began, but she didn’t get any farther than that.

“Please,” Harry sighed without turning to her, “don’t be tedious.”

“But,” Jessica spluttered, knocked back from anger into shock again, “you don’t know-”

“If you don’t understand the discussion,” Harry went on, enunciating each word clearly as though Jessica were a slow child, “you’re free to leave, but please don’t interrupt.”

“Um,” said Caitlin, frowning at the whiteboard. “If I could . . .”

“Yes Caitlin,” Harry turned his attention immediately to her.

“How do you know Cisco will ever be able to control the frequency at which he emits the vibrations?” she asked, looking almost sheepish.

Harry smiled reassuringly at her. “Excellent question.”

Jessica actually sputtered, but Harry paid her no attention.

“It’s just a theory right now,” he admitted, “but with time I think we’ll find that Cisco is capable of more than we can imagine.”

Jessica gave a growl of frustration and stomped out of the cortex.

***

“Hey,” said a voice from behind Caitlin, starling her. She whirled around, to see Cisco standing in the doorway to her lab.

“Cisco,” she sighed, a little relieved. She was jumpier these days than she had been, before the residents of Earth-2 had come into their lives. It was to be expected, Iris had told her, after everything she’d been through, but she still felt foolish every time she was startled by one of her own friends.

Cisco, however, seemed to be just as nervous as her. He shuffled from foot to foot, staring at his shoes, and chewed on his lip as though unsure of what he wanted to say.

Glancing through the glass wall behind him Caitlin could see that the cortex was empty; Barry wasn’t in yet and Jesse and Hartley were apparently off somewhere else reestablishing their bond from the alternate timeline, so it was just the two of them. Rarely had it been just the two of them since Cisco had made his peace with Barry, so Caitlin frowned in concern.

“Is something wrong?” she wondered.

Cisco blinked. “Why would something be wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Caitlin shrugged. “You’re just rarely without your entourage these days.”

He smiled a little, laughing through his nose. “Jesse and Hartley are playing chess,” he explained. “I couldn’t stomach any more.”

Caitlin smiled understandingly.

“Actually,” Cisco tucked a piece of hair behind his ear nervously, “I wanted to talk to you about Harry.”

“What about him?” Caitlin asked, shaking her head in confusion.

“Has he seemed . . . off, to you?” Cisco asked.

Caitlin thought back to earlier that afternoon, when Harry had been explaining his theory about Cisco’s powers.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “He definitely seemed . . . not his usual self.”

“He was paying way more attention to the two of us than he was to Jessica,” Cisco insisted, more animatedly now he knew Caitlin had also noticed. “That’s, like, unheard of for Harry!”

“What do you think it means?” Caitlin wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” Cisco confessed, “but he’s up to something and I don’t like it.”

“Maybe he’s just trying to be nicer to us?” Caitlin speculated.

She and Cisco looked at each other for a few moments. “No,” they said in unison, shaking their heads and muttering about the unlikelihood of such a thing.

“I’m just afraid he’s up to something,” Cisco told her, once they’d both stopped mumbling.

“Like what?” Caitlin wondered.

“I don’t know,” Cisco said, looking off to one side. “It just, freaks me out, you know?”

Caitlin nodded her understanding.

“Be careful,” she advised. “Stay on your guard, and stick with Jesse.”

She leaned in, a knowing smile on her face.

“She does a pretty good job of taking care of my best friend.”

Cisco grinned, then closed the distance between them and pulled Caitlin into a hug.

***

Jesse Wells was a girl unused to having to share.

She was an only child, and had been doted on mercilessly throughout her life by a father trying to be two parents at once. STAR Labs, while it demanded much of her father’s attention, had never commanded his affection, which was reserved for Jesse and Jesse alone. Work was work and home was home, and Jesse had always been home for him. Other people were tedious, but Jesse was always welcome company, his only intellectual equal in all the multiverse. She was the center of his world, his joy, his Jesse Quick, and she always had been.

She had believed she always would be, but today’s events had shaken that belief in a way she hadn’t thought possible. Never before had her father been so cold toward her: ignoring her, talking over her, addressing other people in the room before her and most uncharacteristic of all, insulting her intelligence. Her academic prowess was something her father had always taken immeasurable pride in, and to hear him insinuate that she didn’t understand something had shocked and appalled her. Never before had he acted so dismissive toward her, and for him to have been so openly pleased with not one but _two_ other people was a slap in the face.

It wasn’t just that conversation either. He’d been strangely distant with her all day, refusing to eat or work with her and avoiding their workspace as if it were infested with cockroaches. Whenever she entered a room he left it, and more than once she’d heard him moving around one of the lab, only to find it empty when she came inside. For her entire life he’d been ecstatic to spend time with her, but suddenly he wanted nothing to do with her.

Something was wrong. And Jesse was going to find out what it was.

It took some time quietly roaming the halls of STAR Labs to sneak up on him. Eventually she found him in an unused lab, going over some of the resting brain scans they had taken of their erstwhile test subject. She crept silently into the lab, coming up behind as he worked, and announced her presence only when she began to speak.

“So,” she said, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice, “when are we going to talk about this?”

Her father started, then looked around in surprise. When his eyes settled on her though they narrowed in annoyance, and he closed out of the brain scan files and stood up.

“You can have this lab,” he told her, making to brush past her to get at the door. “I’ll find another.”

“I don’t want the lab!” Jesse snapped in frustration. “I want to know what you think you’re doing!”

He frowned at her, but stopped short to do it, so Jesse counted that as a victory. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’ve been avoiding me all day,” Jesse reminded him, placing her hand on her hips. “What’s up with that?”

“I’ve been busy with the others,” he told her curtly, then tried to sidestep her again.

“Wait!” she said quickly, moving to block his path. “What do you mean the others?”

“The others,” he repeated. “Cisco, Caitlin, all of them. I’ve been busy seeing to them.”

“But,” Jesse spluttered, “they’re not, they’re not _us._ ”

Her father frowned at her. “Us?” he repeated, equal parts annoyed and confused.

“They’re not like us,” Jesse pressed. “They’re not from our world. They’re not-”

 _Me_ , she wanted to say, but that seemed wrong somehow.

“They’re not family,” she tried instead, willing him to understand. She’d never had any trouble making herself understood with her father; he seemed to intuitively know what she meant, even when she’d been too young to properly articulate herself.

Never before had talking to her father been this hard.

He closed his eyes as though the mere act of conversing with her had made him exhausted. “What do you want, Jessica?” he asked.

Jesse jerked her head backwards in shock. “What, I’m Jessica now?” she demanded.

“That’s what Cisco calls you,” he replied, as though this were the most natural thing in the world. As though some stranger could just rename her, and he would go along with it.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, and she could feel rather than hear her voice cracking. “Why are you acting like this?”

“I’m not behaving in any particular way,” her father said impatiently. “I’m acting like an adult. Do you think you can manage that?”

Jesse blinked back tears. “You’ve never been like this before,” she insisted. “You’ve never talked to me like this, paid attention to other people before me-”

“Other people need my attention,” her father snapped. “If you want it, I suggest you earn it like everyone else.”

“But I’m not everyone else!” she cried, fighting the urge to stamp her foot on the floor.

“As of right now,” he informed her, “you are.”

He swerved around her, and she could do nothing but turn to face his retreating back. Never before had her father spoken to her in such a manner. Never had he dismissed her like that, compared her to anyone but himself, and even then it had always been to call her his intellectual superior. Never had he insinuated that she was less important than the very concept of happiness to him, and as she watched him go Jesse fought tears. Her father simply didn’t act like this, would _never_ act like this, would never _treat_ her like this. This wasn’t like her father at all, this couldn’t _be_ her father . . .

This couldn’t be her father.

In the handful of heartbeats before he left the room, Jesse’s mind latched onto that idea and wouldn’t let it go. This wasn’t her father. This _couldn’t_ be her father. Her father didn’t act like this, didn’t behave this way toward her, and so it simply couldn’t be him. She had to find out for sure, she had to prove it to herself, prove that her father loved her more than to say she was no more important to him than one scientist and a handful of metahumans from another dimension.

“You killed two men for me,” she said quietly. She watched him, watched the muscles in his neck shift until his head was turned vaguely toward her, not enough to see her but enough to make it clear he was addressing her.

“Had it occurred to you that perhaps I regret that?” he asked, and before she could answer he turned his head forwards again and strode purposefully from the room.

***

Cisco spent the rest of the day waiting for the other shoe to drop. Harry was up to something, that much he knew, and Jessica seemed to know it too judging by the way she kept darting him nervous glances. After disappearing for a while Harry returned and spent the rest of the day in the cortex, even going so far as to offer suggestions to Jesse and Barry into the coms. It was Hartley’s first day on this end of patrol duty, and it should have been a good thing, fun even, but Harry presence left a lingering sense of unease settled over everything.

“Well that was a bust,” Jesse said as she removed her mask after she and Barry sped back into the cortex.

“Come on, it wasn’t a total waste of time,” Barry wheedled. There was a flash of yellow lightning and suddenly he was standing in his street clothes.

Jesse followed suit. “We didn’t catch a single bad guy,” she pointed out.

“Now we can rest easy knowing the city’s safe,” Barry argued.

“I’m sure the city is grateful,” Harry chimed in, his tone neither sarcastic nor reassuring. It was simply an observation.

Barry evidently chose to interpret it as encouraging. “Thanks,” he said, turning to Harry, but once he stood facing the other man suddenly his face took on a look of shock.

“Woah,” he said holding up a hand, and immediately all eyes flew to Harry. There was nothing at all unusual about him though, he was just standing there doing nothing in particular, but eventually he turned, and then all of them saw what was behind him.

Standing in the doorway to the cortex was Jessica Wells. She was holding a gun, and pointing it at her father.

“Hold on now,” said Joe, reaching for his own weapon, but he looked down when his fingers closed on nothing. Evidently it was his sidearm Jessica was holding.

“Just, just put the gun down,” Barry said gently, lowering his hand demonstratively. “You don’t want to shoot your dad, okay?”

Jessica shook her head. “That’s not my dad,” she said, eyes hard and determined. “That’s the Reverse Flash.”

“How do you know?” Barry demanded. “What makes you think that?”

Jesse swallowed. “This,” she said, and fired.

Cisco’s eyes weren’t fast enough to catch what happened after that. One minute Harry was standing between Jessica and Barry, the next minute he was on the other side of the room, and Barry was standing there with his fist clenched in front of him as though holding a bullet.

One thing Cisco was sure he had seen though, was both red and yellow lightning.

Eobard Thawne gave a deep, weary sigh as all eyes turned to him. “Well,” he said, taking off Harry’s glasses, “I supposed the cat’s out of the bag.”

“Thawne!” Barry growled, dropping into a fighting stance, Jesse doing the same beside him.

“Yes Barry,” he said impatiently. “It’s me. I see your ability to state the obvious remains intact.”

“What are you doing here?” Jesse demanded.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” Thawne told her, “but I’m here for my team.”

“Your team?” Barry repeated incredulously. “What, me and Cisco and Caitlin? We’re not your team anymore, Thawne, you’ll get nothing from us!”

“We’re not going to help you,” Caitlin said firmly, coming to stand beside Cisco. “Whatever you want you won’t get it.”

Cisco opened his mouth to supply his own defiant comment, but his throat was dry. He wanted to say something snappy and biting and witty, but no words would come. He closed his mouth and settled for a heated glare.

“I don’t need anything from you,” Thawne shook his head, looking at Caitlin rather than Barry. “What I want, Caitlin, is to have back what I lost.”

“What do you mean?” Caitlin asked, taking a step back, and Cisco reflexively stepped in front of her.

“I told you once before,” he said, “I did not anticipate how much I would come to love working with you. All I want is the chance for things to go back to the way they were.”

“Things can never be the way they were,” Caitlin insisted. “You betrayed us!”

“Caitlin,” he said, smiling knowingly, his voice ridiculously gentle. “You’ve been through so much, since I left, haven’t you? You’ve been so strong, holding this team together, keeping everyone safe.”

He placed a hand on his heart. “Thank you,” he said. “You don’t know what it means to me to know that you’ve been watching over everyone.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Caitlin snarled.

“But you did it,” Thawne insisted, “and I am so proud of you. If you give me one more chance, I’ll prove that I can take care of this team too.”

“Is that what you were doing?” Cisco was surprised to hear his own voice, rough and ragged with emotion. “When you killed me? Taking care of the team?”

Thawne’s face took on a pained expression. “Cisco,” he breathed, almost reverent in his tone. “I am so, so sorry.”

“But not for killing me,” Cisco protested.

Thawne smiled, actually _smiled_ , in the face of Cisco’s wrath. “Oh Cisco,” he said gently, “haven’t you figured out where you powers came from yet?”

“The particle accelerator?” Cisco guessed sarcastically.

“Partly,” Thawne admitted. “You were primed to become a metahuman the night you were affected by the explosion, but you didn’t receive your powers until later. Until your body was damaged enough that you stood on the brink of death.”

“So you’re saying that when you _killed me,_ ” Cisco clarified, “you were actually giving me my powers?”

“I could never be sorry for that,” Thawne told him. “What I am sorry for is that you had to go through developing your powers alone. I never should have put you through that; you deserve so much better.”

His eyes bored into Cisco’s, full of sick fondness and simpering pity. It made Cisco want to throw up. His mouth opened and closed uselessly, no sound coming out. He was so angry his whole body felt numb, as though it were trying to shield him from the heat of the burning rage inside him.

Thawne seemed to take his silence for acceptance. “I will never leave you alone again,” he promised.

“Go to hell,” Cisco hissed.

Thawne looked at him sadly, opening his mouth to let more sweet lies dribble out like poisoned honey, but he was interrupted by Jessica’s shrill voice.

“What?” she demanded, and when they all looked at her she was still pointing the gun at Thawne. “Nothing to say to me?”

“What should I have to say to you?” Thawne asked coldly.

“Where’s my father!” Jessica screamed, brandishing the weapon.

“Dead,” said Thawne simply.

Jessica stared at him, breathing hard, then let out a low, mournful keen. Suddenly Joe was at her side, taking the gun from her hands and supporting her over to a chair so she could sit down.

Thawne turned back to Cisco and Caitlin. “I’ll be back for you,” he assured them. “Both of you.”

Then, in a blur of red lightning, he was gone.

***

It took some time for Jesse to calm herself down. Detective West stayed with her, talking quietly about how sorry he was and how he was there if she wanted to talk and if she needed anything she only had to ask. Jesse didn’t know what she could possibly need that Detective West could give, so she didn’t thank him for the thought. Clearly no thought had been put into it.

Her father was dead. There was nothing anyone could do.

Clearly determined to make a nuisance of himself, Detective West told her she could sleep at his house tonight if she needed to not be alone. Dimly she realized this would allow her to be closer to Wally, and she latched onto that idea. Wally, she thought, might be able to offer her some comfort. Maybe he would feel bad for her the same way he felt back for her doppelganger, try to comfort Jesse like he had comforted her. Maybe he could do something to ease the gaping pit that was her stomach, make her feel something besides numb and weak and cold.

“Where’s Wally?” she asked, her voice coming out as an ugly croak.

Detective West looked at his daughter, who had also hung around, and she returned his grim expression. “In Jesse’s lab,” she said, “but I don’t think-”

“I’m gonna go talk to him,” Jesse announced, standing up from her chair. She left Iris and Detective West in the cortex, uncaring as to whether they were looking after her or not.

It felt like it took a long time to find the lab that had been staked out by the Other Jesse. The hallways of STAR Labs all seemed longer than normal, and she felt as though she were floating. Eventually she found herself at the correct door, and without thinking she pushed it open. She didn’t care what else was on the other side. She only wanted to see Wally.

Wally was on the other side of the door. So, however, was Other Jesse.

They were kissing. Not a peck on the cheek. Not a chaste brush of lips. Honestly, truly, open-mouthed kissing.

Jesse let the door swing shut.

Before she knew what was happening her feet carried her outside, and the chill night air clapped against her skin like a slap in the face. She let out a loud, screaming sob at the sensation, the pain in her chest redoubling now that the numbness had been burned off by the cold. She began to run, toward no particular destination just aimlessly down the sidewalk, feeling her feet thud against the ground and tears run down her cheeks. Before long her lungs burned and her legs ached, and she had to stumble to a stop, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. She didn’t have the first idea where she was, just that she was some ways from STAR Labs.

“Well well well,” said a voice behind her, making Jesse whirl around. “What have we here.”

An unmarked white van had pulled up to the edge of the sidewalk without her noticing, and out of it stepped four men in what looked like full combat gear.

“Jesse Quick,” said the one that had spoken before, his voice full of cruel amusement. “Out on her own.”

Jesse shook her head. “No,” she said hurriedly, “I’m not-”

It seemed that there were, in fact, five men in combat gear, which Jesse dimly registered as she felt rather than heard one of them come up behind her. There was a crackle of electricity, followed immediately by a stinging pain in her side. She didn’t even have time to cry out before she was falling, her legs giving out from under her as the whole world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i want to emphasize that when eobard is talking to cisco and caitlin, he's being a manipulative little shit. he didn't kill cisco in order to give him his powers, he did it because he couldn't let cisco tell barry he was the reverse flash; he's crediting himself with giving cisco his powers after the fact. notice how he never outright states "that's why i killed you." he's just implying it because that's what he wants cisco to think, but he won't lie because that's beneath him or whatever insane troll logic he uses.


	8. Quid Pro Quo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize for the shitty fight scenes, i'm not very good at them.

Wally had been a little unsure of where to take Jesse on their first date.

After all, where did one take a superheroine that would impress her? She’d seen every inch of Central City, admittedly at top speed, but he doubted there was anywhere she hadn’t gone at least once. There were plenty of fun things to do, but activities that could thrill someone who fought evil metahumans every day were in short supply. He wanted to take her somewhere that would excite her, but that was almost impossible, and for some reason it didn’t seem right anyway.

Jesse had enough excitement in her daily life. Shouldn’t a date, something that was just about having fun with another person, be something different? A change of pace? A chance for her to relax?

In the end he picked something safe: dinner at a low-key pizza place, then a movie, something funny and easy to watch. Dinner went well, Wally telling her stories from his drag racing days and Jesse regaling him with tales of thrilling heroics. Despite the fact that her stories were much cooler she seemed suitably impressed by all of his, and Wally chose to take this as a sign that she was more interested in him than his escapades.

The movie was where things went wrong. For the first hour or so it was great, perfect even; the movie was funny and Jesse laughed along with Wally and everyone else in the theater. After everything she’d been through, everything she’d seen, he would have thought it’d be harder for her to laugh, but she was just as raucous and animated as anyone else. Wally had just gotten through deciding that he liked Jesse’s laugh when some twit with a gun and balls bigger than his brain had decided to hold up the front desk.

Jesse had needed to run back to STAR Labs for her suit, but while she was gone the robbery simply commenced, and Wally hadn’t been able to stomach that. He’d stood up and tried to keep the would-be thief’s attention on him rather than the terrified cashier, but once Jesse Quick had emerged onto the scene to snatch up the criminal’s weapon, zip-tie his wrists to his ankles and pull down his pants for good measure, she had immediately come to a stop glaring very unsubtly at Waly.

“I couldn’t just do nothing!” Wally protested as he struggled to keep pace with Jesse on the busy sidewalk.

“Actually, Wally, that’s exactly what you were supposed to do,” she informed him. She wasn’t using her powers, but she kept up a brisk walk and exuded such an air of authority that she cut through the crowd outside the theater like a knife through butter, and Wally had to fight through the press of bodies she left in her wake.

“It all worked out,” Wally reminded her, dodging around a woman in a ridiculous purple hat.

“Just because it worked out this time doesn’t mean you should have done it,” Jesse argued. “Your dad’s a cop, didn’t he ever teach you that when you’re in that situation you don’t try to be a hero?”

“You tried to be a hero,” Wally pointed out, very reasonably in his own opinion.

“I  _ am- _ ” Jesse began, then remembered that they were still in public. She slowed down a little so Wally could keep up with her, then went on when she could whisper almost directly in his ear. “I  _ am _ a hero,” she reminded him, “in fact I’m a  _ superhero _ , and I don’t do this lightly okay? I have  _ powers _ , they keep me  _ safe. _ ”

“You don’t do what you do because you want to play it safe,” Wally told her. “You do it because it’s the right thing and you’re brave enough to stand up for that. Is it so ridiculous that I wanna be brave too?”

“I resent the implication that my superpowers are the same as your  _ cojones _ ,” Jesse glowered.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Wally tried.

“Then what are you saying?” Jesse hissed, stopping in the middle of the street and whirling around to glare at him properly.

“I’m saying-” Wally hesitated a moment, trying to think of how to put in, then licked his lips and went on. “I’m saying you’re amazing, and there’s no one in the world I’d rather be like more than you.”

For a moment Jesse stood still, breathing through her nose and pinning him with her gaze. Then she lowered her eyes and began to sway back and forth, just a little. She peered up at him through her lashes, and Wally felt pinned in an entirely new way.

“You think I’m amazing?” she asked coyly, but a small smile was tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Wally grinned. “So amazing,” he confirmed.

“More amazing than the Flash?” Jesse challenged as she took off again at a more leisurely pace, Wally falling into step beside her.

“Way more,” Wally told her seriously, grinning down at her. He wasn’t  _ that _ much taller than her, but it still felt nice to see her looking up at him.

“Flatterer,” Jesse accused, but there was no heat behind it. She was definitely smiling now, her full lips turned up and her white teeth peeking out from behind her red lipstick. 

Thinking about Jesse’s lips led down a dangerous road though, so Wally turned his eyes front and kept walking.

“So,” he sighed, “aside from the almost dying part-”

“I didn’t almost die,” Jesse protested lightly.

“Okay, aside from the  _ me _ almost dying part,” Wally amended, “how was it?”

“As first dates go?” Jesse tapped her chin, pondering theatrically. “I give it a nine out of ten.”

“Only a nine?” Wally said, feigning offense. “What’d I lose a point on?”

Jesse smirked up at him, then put on a burst of speed so she was in front of him walking backwards. “You haven’t kissed me goodnight yet.”

Wally stepped forward, fully intending to correct that oversight, when suddenly the opening chords to the Ghostbusters’ theme song emanated from Jesse’s pocket.

She winced and drew out her phone. “Cisco?” she asked in exasperation.

There was a pause, then-

“Really?” she grumbled, putting her weight on one hip and rolling her eyes. “Did you have a vibe?” she demanded. “Is this about-”

Another pause.

“No,” she whined, “I get it.”

Then she hung up.

“Something wrong?” Wally wanted to know.

Jesse sighed. “Barry needs my help,” she confessed, looking genuinely sorry. “Walk me home another night?”

“After our second date?” Wally asked hopefully.

Jesse grinned. “Definitely,” she laughed, then turned to go.

“And,” said Wally loudly, making her turn back to him, “I’ll take a rain check on that kiss.”

Jesse’s eyes lit up as her smile got impossibly wider. “Deal,” she told him, then turned and sped off, leaving Wally staring after her with a dopey grin on his face.

Yeah, Jesse Quick was something special.

***

Jesse wasn’t entirely sure how long she’d been down here. It might have been hours, it might have been days, but it seemed like it had been a long time. There were no windows, no clock, just the rough stone walls and the chair to which she was secured. Everything but her head was strapped in place, so she could do little but crane her neck around, trying to see more of her prison.

She was inside a box, the walls of which she dimly recognized as speedster-proof glass. She’d never seen them before, but she could hazard a guess that the glowing restraints that held her in place were also anti-speedster technology. Her captors believed her to be her doppelganger, and the case of mistaken identity might make this imprisonment even more dangerous than the last one.

_ At least I’m not dangling by my wrists, _ she thought, with dark humor.

Jesse had woken up here, brought back to consciousness by the freezing cold. She wanted to move, to blow on her hands, to warm herself up in any way she could, but she was trapped. No one had come to talk to her yet, but she knew it was only a matter of time. The men who had taken her clearly worked for the General Eiling that Team Flash had spoken about, who had been abducting metas in this universe and who had utterly beaten them all. Eiling thought she had superspeed, the secrets of which he would kill and torture to obtain.

No one was coming for her. Last time she had at least been sure in the knowledge that her father was doing everything he could to get her back. This time she was in an unfamiliar universe, where technically speaking she didn’t exist, and her father, the only person who would have noticed or cared that she was gone, was dead. Team Flash couldn’t help her, even if they wanted to. She was alone.

At long last the single metal door in the far wall opened, and in marched a broad-shouldered man in full camouflage gear. Behind him were two more men, but they stood by the door while the first man who had entered approached Jesse’s glass cage. He wore heavy boots, a thick coat, and a cap pulled down over his graying hair. His face was lined, but he did not look unhappy. In fact he seemed exceedingly pleased with something.

Jesse had a feeling she knew what he was pleased about.

“Miss Quick,” said the man smugly. “We weren’t properly introduced last time you were in one of my compounds, on account of you having broken in. My name is General Wade Eiling.”

“I’m not Jesse Quick,” Jesse told him hurriedly.

Eiling raised an eyebrow. “That’s one way to play this, I suppose.”

“No, really,” Jesse insisted, trying to think of what would convince him. “I’m her doppelganger, from an alternate universe.”

“The hair was a nice touch,” Eiling said, completely ignoring her. “We’ve been looking for a blonde girl, but you’re not the first vigilante to wear a wig as well as a mask.”

“I’m not her!” Jesse persisted. “Look, remember last year, when new metahumans were coming out of the woodwork? And there was that one, Black Siren, that looked like a woman from this universe who was dead? They were from my world. They came through a breach-”

“The Flash may have told you this,” Eiling began to talk over her, “but your powers are second only to Firestorm in terms of their interest to me.”

“I don’t have any powers,” Jesse pleaded. “Really, I’m not her!”

Eiling reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device with several buttons on it.

“This is how it’s going to go,” he said. “I’m going to ask the questions and you’re going to answer them; if you don’t answer, or I don’t like your answer, I push this button.”

He indicated a large red button on the front of the device.

“Believe me, you don’t want me to push this button.”

Jesse swallowed, then nodded.

“How did you come by your abilities?” Eiling asked. “Did you get them from the same sources as the Flash, or some other way?”

“All speedsters get their power from the Speed Force,” Jesse recited, eyes fixed on the device in his hand. “But I’m not a speedster, I-”

“Then how do you know that?” Eiling demanded, clearly growing impatient. His thumb hovered over the button, and Jesse flinched.

“My . . . my father told me,” Jesse said. “He studied speedsters, he, he worked with the Flash.”

She sniffled, trying not to cry at the thought of her father, at the thought that she would never see him again, that she would never see  _ anyone _ again-

“And who is your father?” Eiling wanted to know. He sounded half disbelieving, half genuinely curious, like he’d have liked to meet this person who’d already made an extensive study of metahumans who harnessed the power of the Speed Force.

Or, perhaps, abduct him.

Jesse swallowed, knowing how this was going to sound. “Dr. Harrison Wells.”

Eiling smiled, letting out a condescending little laugh through his nose. “Good try,” he nodded to her. “Harrison Wells did, in fact, work with the Flash. He did not, however, have any children.”

“He did in my universe!” Jesse protested. “Things were different there; there was a metahuman called Zoom-”

“Zoom,” Eiling repeated. “The same Zoom that terrorized our city?”

“Yes!” Jesse nodded frantically. “He came through the breach, like me.”

“Why should I believe that?” Eiling growled, but he was clearly beginning to accept that she might be telling the truth. Jesse wasn’t sure what he’d do when he realized he snatched the wrong girl, but it had to be better than what he’d do to her if he thought she was a speedster.

“Why else would he stay dormant for so long?” Jesse challenged. “He only started terrorizing Central City when he did because he’d only just arrived.”

Eiling narrowed his eyes, then turned to one of the soldiers who had entered with him. “Get me Thawne,” he barked.

Jesse’s blood went cold. Eobard Thawne? The man who had killed her father? She’d known he was working with Eiling, but to know that he was in the building struck fear into her heart. Her father had survived every metahuman on both Earths, including Zoom; the Reverse Flash had been the only one powerful enough to kill him. He was dangerous, and while he hadn’t shown much interest in her before, she didn’t know what he’d do if he thought she was her doppelganger.

The man to whom Eiling had spoken repeated the order into a radio strapped to his shoulder, and after a few seconds of Eiling glaring distrustfully at her suddenly there was a blur of red lightning and Thawne was standing before the cage. His eyes narrowed when he looked at Jesse, but then he turned his attention to Eiling.

“What’s this about?” he asked impatiently.

Eiling nodded at Jesse. “She claims she’s not the Jesse who’s been fighting with the Flash the last few months.”

Eobard closed his eyes and pursed his lips as though fighting for control of himself. He turned from Eiling and approached Jesse, then stopped at the glass wall. He threw a pointedly look at Eiling, who pressed one of the other buttons on the device he had taken out of his pocket, and this caused one wall of the glass cage to slide upwards.

Thawne closed the distance between himself and Jesse, then reached out and gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. He held her gaze, his piercing blue eyes identical and yet so different from her father’s. She squirmed, but he held her fast, his eyes boring into hers.

Then he turned to Eiling.

“You idiot,” he snapped. “You took the wrong girl.”

Eiling growled. “What do you mean?”

“There’s no power in her eyes,” Thawne explained, sounding vaguely disgusted. “Just ordinary fear. There’s nothing special about her.”

Some distant part of her balked at that, but Jesse wasn’t about to give it voice.

“So she’s useless to us!” Eiling concluded, his mouth twisting in rage.

A small smile creeped over Thawne’s face. “I wouldn’t say that, my friend,” he said, turning to look at Jesse with a unsettling expression. “I wouldn’t say that at all.”

***

“Think fast!” came Barry’s voice from somewhere off to Cisco’s left.

Cisco whirled around just in time to see a streak of gold lightning disappear behind a stack of boxes. From the point where the streak had doubtlessly stood a few microseconds ago, a beanbag was now flying at Cisco’s head. He jerked backwards on a reflex and it hit him hard in the chest, but he managed to catch it before it hit the ground.

Cisco growled and dropped the bag anyway, then raised both hand and went back to looking warily around the training room.

“On your left!” Jesse called, from a direction that most certainly was not his left. Momentarily confused, Cisco didn’t react fast enough, and the beanbag struck the side of his head.

“You remember you’re supposed to be blowing those apart, right?” Caitlin’s voice reminded him over the speaker. She was observing the training session from the raised platform, safely out of the way of any flying beanbags.

“I remember,” Cisco grumbled, not looking at her as it would take his attention off the lightning twins that were still skulking around with armloads of ammunition. “It’s just happening too fast for me to focus. Doing this against speedsters is like five different kinds of unfair!”

“Cisco, you can do this,” Caitlin assured him.

Cisco turned around just to glare at her. “I  _ know _ I can do it,” he snapped. “Watch.”

He took one quick breath, then raised a hand a leveled a blast at the stack of boxes Barry had just disappeared behind. The one that was hit directly crumpled in on itself, and the rest went flying in all directions. Barry let out an undignified little yelp, then ran to hide behind a pillar instead.

“Good,” said Jesse’s voice from Cisco’s right. “Then you should be ready for this.”

He turned toward the sound of her voice, to find her standing openly in the middle of the floor. She had a smirk on her face, one hand on her hip, and the other one held up to show what she was holding.

It was a bright red water balloon.

“No!” Cisco raised both his hand to ward her off. “Jesse don’t you even-”

Before he could finish his sentence Jesse drew back her hand at superhuman speed and lobbed the balloon at Cisco with all the strength of the Speed Force. It rocketed toward him, and he didn’t have time to take a breath before vibrations were bursting from his palms to intercept the projectile, rupturing it and spilling its contents over the floor a good two feet away from him.

“No fair!” Cisco shouted. “We did not agree on water balloons Jesse; I just straightened my hair this morning!”

“But you did it!” Jesse said excitedly, gesturing at the puddle of water between them.

“Yeah,” said Barry emerging from his hiding place with an obnoxiously cocky smile. “You blew that thing apart dude!”

“It’s a balloon,” Cisco grumbled, “it’s not that hard to break it. More importantly what if it had hit me?”

“Then I’d have straightened your hair again for you,” Jesse promised.

“As long as we’re clear on that,” Cisco said loftily, then grinned. “Yeah, that was pretty cool.”

“So,” Caitlin picked up her tablet and tapped the surface a few times. “Hitting and destroying flying projectiles: check.”

“Not check!” Cisco protested. “I did it once!”

“Proving that you can do it,” Jesse argued. “What’s next on the list?”

“Target practice,” Caitlin announced.

Cisco opened his mouth to argue some more, but suddenly the training room was a literal whirlwind of activity and lightning as Jesse and Barry cleared away the boxes and set up a series of targets. Of course they weren’t just any targets; these were STAR Labs targets, and that meant they were ridiculously over-designed. They were covered in LEDs of various colors, came in a variety of different heights and sizes and were all mounted on motorized bases so they could be turned into moving targets at any time.

“Don’t worry,” Jesse said when she came to a stop, beaming innocently at him, “none of them have lasers.”

“Don’t you think we should be working on, like, teamwork or something?” Cisco asked pleadingly. “You know, coming up with attack patterns, practicing formations, doing trust exercises?”

“Once you knock over all the targets then we’ll think about group fighting maneuvers,” Barry bargained.

Cisco grinned. “You made a bad deal my friend,” he said, then turned to the row of targets and fired a single, sweeping blast.

He had to admit, he was getting better at this one. Rather than sending out a ripple in a full circle around his body, he simply fired a continuous blast out of his hand as it moved, sending out a broad but powerful wave. It still wasn’t as strong as the more concentrated blasts he send in a single direction, but it was getting stronger, and it easily sent every target clattering to the floor.

Barry glowered. “That’s cheating.”

“No it isn’t,” Cisco argued, folding his arms over his chest. “I knocked them all over.”

“If you’re going to fight on the same field as us you’re going to need to improve your aim,” Jesse told him. “You can’t be part of a team if you’re just going to hit your teammates by accident.”

“I haven’t managed to hit either of you yet,” Cisco pointed out.

“You did when you fired that blast to cut off the speakers in Eiling’s basement,” Barry reminded him. “If I wasn’t already down that would have knocked me on my ass. For a couple of seconds there I couldn’t even feel my speed, just  _ ouch. _ ”

“Yeah,” Jesse concurred, “that was not fun.”

“Ok,” Cisco held up his hands in surrender. “Target practice.”

Barry and Jesse both grinned in triumph, then ran to set up the targets again.

***

“You’re getting better,” Barry pronounced as they all filed into the cortex, tired but triumphant after their training session.

“You think so?” Cisco wondered.

Caitlin handed him a water bottle and he drank thirstily from it. He was sweating, his hair gone frizzy from the humidity despite not getting wet, and Caitlin watched his throat bob as he drank. She couldn’t remember seeing him this thirsty; normally he was always sipping on something, never really gulping like he was now. She supposed she’d never really seen him exert himself like this. 

It was strange to watch Cisco work his body rather than his mind this hard. They were both intellectuals; neither of them did much of the physical heavy lifting. It wasn’t that she didn’t think he could hold his own, obviously he’d always been able to handle himself, but to see him put so much effort into training his powers made him seem more like Barry and less like, well, Cisco.

“Definitely,” Barry answered Cisco’s question. “Your powers are getting stronger, and you’re getting a better handle on them. Pretty soon you’ll be out there fighting crime like me.”

“I don’t know,” Cisco said, obviously trying to sound modest as he handed the water bottle back to Caitlin. Then he glanced at her, and his brow creased in concern. “I, I’m not really sure I’m ready for that kind of thing.”

Caitlin looked down. She could only imagine what kind of expression she was wearing, for him to say something like that. Cisco had  _ always _ wanted to fight crime like Barry, to be a hero with powers that beat up bad guys and saved the day. For him to demure like that . . .

“Hey,” said Cisco quietly, moving in close to her. “Is everything okay?”

Caitlin looked up at him and forced a smile. “Yeah,” she replied. “You’re gonna make a great superhero.”

Cisco frowned, but nodded his understanding.

“He’s gonna be awesome,” Barry concurred, completely oblivious to the silent exchange. “I’ve always wanted a sidekick.”

“I thought Jesse was your sidekick,” Cisco protested.

“I’m no one’s sidekick,” said Jesse distractedly, frowning as she leaned over one of the computer terminals.

“No one is anyone’s sidekick,” Caitlin said firmly.  “We’re all a team. We’re equals.”

“Uh, we’re called Team Flash?” Barry said pointedly.

“I thought we were Team STAR Labs?” Cisco interjected.

“That’s you, me and Caitlin,” Barry corrected. “All of us is-”

“Guys,” Jesse interrupted, and they all turned to look at her. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the computer screen, and was now beckoning them over to look as well. “You probably wanna see this.”

They all clustered around the computer terminal, and suddenly it became apparent what had so taken Jesse’s attention.

Filling the screen was a video feed of Jessica. She was wearing the same clothes she’d had on a few days ago, when she’d left STAR Labs crying. They had assumed she needed some time alone -- she’d made her own way on Earth-1 for several months during her last visit -- so none of them had thought to look for her. Now she was blindfolded, gagged, and bound to the chair she was sitting in, breathing raggedly through her nose.

“Hello Team Flash,” said the voice of General Eiling. “As you can see, I have something of yours.”

“Is this a recording?” Barry asked quietly.

Jesse nodded. “He sent it to us an hour and a half ago.”

“This girl is of no use to me,” Eiling informed them, “so I might as well dispose of her. If she has some value to you, however, I’d like to propose a trade. Miss Wells here, for Cisco Ramon.”

“What!” Jesse demanded, but Barry hushed her.

“You have two hours to decide,” Eiling instructed, then the video went dead.

“So we have less than thirty minutes, actually,” Cisco glanced at his watch.

“We’re not actually considering this,” Jesse protested. “It’s out of the questions; we’re not trading my brother for . . . her.”

“We can’t just leave her there,” Caitlin pointed out. As much as she was worried for Cisco, she knew it was wrong to do nothing. They were the good guys; they had to rescue Jessica.

“We’re not doing this!” Jesse insisted.

“We don’t have a choice!” Cisco argued.

“Guys,” Barry interrupted, “we need a plan. Any ideas?”

“Actually,” Cisco pulled out his phone, “I do. Message Eiling back; we’ll play ball, but I’ve got a few conditions.”

***

Jesse couldn’t believe they were actually going to do this.

Jessica Wells had done nothing but belittle and insult them from day one. They’d saved her life and she treated them all like garbage, like something she’d scraped off the bottom of her shoe. She’d been fine with putting Cisco’s life in danger, and now they were going to trade his life for hers.

Hopefully it wasn’t going to go down that way, but supposedly that’s what they were going to be doing.

Jesse tried not to think about it as she angrily organized her lab. It was something her father had taught her to do, bringing order to her workspace so that hopefully her mind would follow the same path. It had always worked to calm her down in the past, but today it wasn’t doing anything for her.

“Hey,” said a familiar voice from the door, and Jesse stopped throwing tools into drawers and turned to see Wally standing in the hall outside.

“Hey yourself,” she said, some of the tension bleeding out of her. She beckoned him inside and he came, but he didn’t slot immediately into her personal space like he had the last few times they’d seen each other. Instead he kept his distance, head bowed slightly, peering nervously at her from under his short lashes.

Jesse frowned. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he said immediately, then looked grim. “I, uh, heard you’re going on this . . . prisoner exchange, thing.”

“Unfortunately,” Jesse huffed.

“It’s a pretty bad situation,” Wally admitted. “How are you holding up?”

“Well I can’t believe my brother wants to trade his life for that brat,” Jesse said testily, then sighed. “But he’s a hero. That’s what heroes do.”

Then her face settled back into its sour expression. “And I’m  _ not _ letting him do this alone with  _ Barry, _ no matter how much I don’t want to go.”

“If it means anything,” Wally smiled wryly, “I don’t want you to go either.”

“Why not?” Jesse asked, feeling her brow crease in confusion.

Wally shrugged. “I just don’t, I guess,” he said vaguely.

Jesse grinned a little. “Aw,” she teased, “are you worried about me?”

“Yes,” said Wally, with startling conviction. He looked at Jesse with concern in his eyes. “I’m scared you’re going to get hurt, okay? I want to protect you but I, I can’t.”

Wally looked down. “Sometimes I wish I had powers like you,” he sighed, “just so I could keep you safe.”

For a moment Jesse stared. It wasn’t that she was unused to people wanting to protect her -- Cisco alone wished he could do more take care of her at least twice a week -- but coming from Wally it felt . . . different.

“Hey,” she said quietly, stepping forward until she could slide one hand up his chest. “I’ll be okay.”

“I know,” he said, touching his forehead to hers. His eyes were closed, but he ran his hands up her arms until he could cup her face. “I just worry, is all.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, placing a light kiss on his lips. “I’m Jesse Quick, remember?”

Wally laughed, hollowly, but opened his eyes. “Yeah,” he said simply, “you are.”

***

Eobard Thawne detested being told where to stand.

He’d known he would have to do some distasteful things when he joined forces with Wade Eiling. Ostensibly the General was in control, and to maintain that illusion Eobard would have to follow his orders. Eiling was a sadist, so Eobard had known those orders wouldn’t always be pleasant to carry out, but sometime even the simplest of commands would rub him the wrong way on sheer principle.

Case in point, the position he’d been given in front of the military compound hidden in the forest fifteen miles outside Central City. In front of the formation -- for it was a formation -- stood Eiling himself, surrounded by half a dozen guards. To his right but slightly behind him, in a clearly subordinate position, stood Eobard in full costume, and to counterpoint him on Eiling’s left was the soldier holding the bound and gagged Jessica Wells. Forming a wall behind them were several trucks, almost completely blocking the main entrance to the compound. Eobard would have liked to have hidden amongst the trees, lain in wait in case something went wrong, but no one had asked him.

It didn’t matter now anyway. After tonight, everything would be settled.

As was customary for Barry Allen, the Flash showed up late.

“Sorry,” he began as he came to a stop a few dozen paces in front of Eiling, clutching Cisco by one shoulder. “We were running a little behind schedule.”

“Where’s Jesse Quick?” Eiling barked. “I gave specific instructions; you wanted to do this at the compound where the freak would be held, you were both to be here for the exchange.”

“She didn’t want to come,” Barry shouted back. “She wants nothing to do with this. I had to knock her out before I could get Cisco here.”

Barry shoved Cisco roughly in the back, and Eobard’s jaw clenched slightly as the boy fell to his knees. His hands were bound in front of him and his face was ashen, as though he were absolutely terrified. It left a bitter taste in Eobard’s mouth, that Cisco was so afraid. He would be far safer here than he ever had been with Barry Allen.

Barry flung out his arms. “Are we gonna do this or what?”

Eiling nodded. “Send him over.”

“Nice try,” Barry shot back. “You send her over.”

Eiling looked genuinely amused. “Why don’t they start walking at the same time?”

Jessica was uncuffed and her blindfold was removed. She took out her own gag, but thankfully kept quiet. Cisco got to his feet and they both began to walk towards each other across the open ground between Barry and Eiling.

“Nice and slow,” Eiling instructed.

“Take your time,” Barry agreed.

Cisco and Jessica both slowed their pace, but kept walking.

When they met in the middle they both looked at each other, their frightened expressions neatly mirroring one another. Cisco nodded to her, then jerked his head at Barry. Jessica nodded, and Eobard thought she might have almost looked grateful. He wasn’t entirely sure someone like her was capable of gratitude, but she was doing a passable impression and that was clearly enough for Cisco. He continued on, and she went on behind him.

Cisco was just reaching Eiling, was nearly in Eobard’s arms but was still  _ just _ out of reach, when Eiling gave the order.

“Now!” he yelled.

Suddenly the covers were thrown off the backs of three of the trucks to reveal Eiling’s latest anti-speedster weapons.

“Hit him with everything you’ve got!” Eiling ordered, and suddenly every barrel was leveled at the Flash.

Barry put a hand to his ear. “Any time now!” he said loudly.

Suddenly there was a blast like a canon going off somewhere in the forest off to Eobard’s left. A shockwave swept over the compound, and suddenly every light went dark and every radio went quiet. The weapons aimed at Barry all shut down abruptly, leaving the operators staring dumbly at useless piles of scrap metal.

“An EMP blast!” Eiling shouted, and suddenly every soldier was reaching for his weapon. They formed a line in front of their commanding officer, blocking Barry’s way to Cisco, and those in the trucks stood up to provide cover fire from higher ground.

“Cisco!” Barry called anxiously.

“Don’t worry,” Cisco shouted back, turning to face the row of trucks. “I got this.”

Eobard had the sense to move out of the way before Cisco send out a sweeping vibration blast that sent every truck parked in front of the compound rolling onto its side.

***

“You think they’re really here this time?” Jesse asked Hartley as they came to a stop at the bottom of the stairwell, in front of the entrance to the compound’s lowest level.

“One way to find out,” he said, raising his gloves to aim at the doors. He blasted them apart, and the two of them stepped out into the sub-basement.

It was a barren hallway, darkened now that the lights had been knocked out by Hartley’s EMP generator. Jesse clicked on her flashlight and shone it over the bleached white walls, to see that every few feet was a door. They looked like glass, but each was probably unique the occupants of the cells.

Behind each door was a person, most of them crouching but a few of them standing. Some looked ordinary, but some had visible mutations, like glowing eyes or oddly textured skin. Vaguely Jesse recognized a supervillain she herself had fought, but who had seemed to go dormant not long afterwards. Clearly, that had not actually been the case.

“They’re metahumans,” Jesse whispered, shining the light over the rows of terrified faces.

“I don’t suppose you know which ones are good and which ones are bad do you?” Hartley wondered.

Jesse shook her head. “I only recognize a few, and anyway we can’t just leave them here.”

“Alright,” Hartley called, raising his gloves. “Everybody out!”

***

As Barry dashed in every direction at once, grabbing bullets out of the air, Cisco kept up his assault on the anti-speedster weapons. They were useless now, but he wanted to them just as useless tomorrow, so he kept firing blast after blast, watching bits and pieces break off with every strike. Barry stopped him from getting shot, and between the two of them they were putting on a fantastic display.

No one would guess that their plan wasn’t just a full frontal assault on the compound. Honestly Cisco was beginning to think that might have worked, had it actually been what they were doing.

“You doin’ okay Cisco?” Barry called over the noise.

“I’m super!” Cisco called back, grinning at his own joke. A pun and a  _ House _ reference in one!

Cisco noticed the red lightning out of the corner of his eye at first. Thawne had fled at the first sign of trouble and Cisco had been too focus on the task at hand to pay attention to where he’d gone, but now he could see the telltale yellow streak of the Reverse-Flash coming back toward them through the trees. Barry wasn’t looking, was too focused on the bullets to notice the threat creeping up behind him, and before Cisco could get out a word of warning Eobard would be upon him.

Cisco reacted on instinct. He turned toward the treeline and fired without thinking, without breath or conscious thought. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him that he had to protect his friend, and the blast came not just from his hand, but somewhere deep inside himself. Somewhere that felt connected to the whole universe.

The vibration blast hit Eobard square in the chest, stopping the lightning in its path and sending the speedster hurtling backwards into a tree. Eobard stood there gasping for a moment, clutching at his chest, then he turned and began to stumble away.

At first Cisco thought it might have been because Eobard had lost his footing. He staggered the first few feet at normal speed, swaying dangerously, but even as he began to steady himself he didn’t speed up. He broke into a run, his balance restored but with no lightning at his his heels. He wasn’t using his speed.

_ He had no speed _ .

“Cisco?” Barry’s anxious voice broke through Cisco’s thoughts, causing him to realize he’d been staring at the treeline for too long.

“Yeah,” said Cisco automatically, raising both hands and turning back to the trucks, “I’m good, I just-”

At that moment suddenly Jesse streaked out from between two trucks and came to a stop at Cisco’s side, Hartley in tow.

“We did it?” Cisco asked.

Jesse grinned. “We freed everybody we found,” she told him. “As long as this is the only place they’re holding people, we got them all.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Barry said, his voice sounding like it was coming from several places at once as he continued to dash around.

Jesse turned to where her doppelganger was sheltering behind a tree. “We got what we came for,” she said. “Let’s get out of here.”

***

“That’s definitely some thrilling heroics,” Wally conceded as Jesse concluded her story. They were in Wally’s car, driving back to what had come to be known as the Flash Mansion, and Wally was pretty satisfied with how their second date had gone.

What remained to be seen was what Jesse thought of it.

Jesse preened. “One does one’s best,” she said loftily, clearly thrilled with the praise. She fluttered her eyelashes at him, and he had to fight to put his eyes back on the road.

“I should probably talk to Jesse. The other Jesse,” he clarified, glancing at her sheepishly. “She’s been through a lot; she probably needs some support.”

“Probably,” Jesse agreed, but there was a note of hardness in her voice. Wally struggled to place it for a moment, then suddenly his face broke out in a grin.

“Why?” he asked teasingly. “You got a problem with that?”

“No,” said Jesse, a little too defensively.

“Are you jealous?” Wally laughed.

“I’m not jealous,” Jesse snapped, but she was laughing too. “I’m not so petty that I feel threatened every time my boyfriend looks at another girl. Even if she does happen to look exactly like me.”

“Boyfriend?” Wally repeated, throat suddenly tightening. They hadn’t discussed labels yet.

“Do you have a problem with ‘boyfriend’?” Jesse wondered, somehow back in control of the conversation already.

“No,” Wally croaked, then cleared his throat. “Boyfriend, boyfriend is good.”

They pulled up in front of Flash Mansion and Wally stopped the car. For a moment he and Jesse sat in silence, the darkness inside the car lending an air of mystery to both their looks. Jesse’s eyes nearly glowed in the darkness, and Wally thought he might have seen lightning inside them.

Then Jesse leaned in and connected their lips. It wasn’t like their first kiss, emotionally-charged and needy, but light and hesitant, asking rather than demanding. Wally obliged the request, moving his lips against Jesse’s, opening his mouth to deepen the kiss when she opened hers. They stayed like that for some time, kissing unhurriedly, like they had all the time in the world.

When Jesse finally pulled back she was breathing shallowly, and Wally’s heart was pounding in his chest. They looked at each other for another few quiet moments, then Jesse looked down.

“Goodnight Wally,” she said, opening her door.

“Goodnight,” Wally replied, watching as she closed the door, walked up to her house, and went inside.

As he drove home Wally West was riding high. He was friends with a team full of superheroes, who had just won a major victory against a seriously powerful enemy. He had a girlfriend, who was awesome and amazing and had superpowers. He had just had one of the best kisses of his life, and it promised to be the first of many more kisses to come.

When Wally pulled into the gas station he had nothing on his mind but Jesse’s kiss. He didn’t consider the fact that it was dark and late and no one else was there. He barely heard the thunder overhead, and almost didn’t notice his ears pop when the barometric pressure changed.

He did, however, hear the voice that called his name.

“West,” it barked, and Wally looked over to see a white man with a short, unkempt beard, like he simply hadn’t had the opportunity to shave for a while.

“Yeah?” Wally replied, frowning at the man. He didn’t look familiar.

“You’re Joe West’s boy,” the man said, pointing at him.

Wally frowned. “It’s Wally,” he said. “Who are you?”

“Name’s Mardon,” said the man, smiling suddenly. “But your dad’s buddy the Flash calls me Weather Wizard.”

The man reached up to the sky, and suddenly thunder boomed above them. Wally looked up, to see lightning rolling through the dark clouds like the coils off some great sea monster breaking the surface of the ocean. He looked back at Mardon, wondering if he could be reasoned with, but Mardon was already bringing down one hand to point at Wally.

The last thing Wally saw was a tendril of lightning reaching out of the sky towards him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what i want most from season three is for cisco to have a training montage. just one, flash writers? just for me?


	9. Things That Sparkle In The Sun

Caitlin Snow hadn’t live in a house since she’d moved out of her parents’ place.

Since then it had been nothing but dormitories and apartments, either by herself or shared with a roommate. She and Ronnie had thought about buying a house, before everything that had happened, but then the explosion and the resulting craziness had left her living in their old apartment alone, the real estate brochures sitting forlornly on the coffee table until Caitlin had shoved them in the trash.

Moving into Dr. Wells’ old house wasn’t like buying a house with Ronnie. This wasn’t the beginning of the future, just a means of dealing with the present. Still, there was something similar in it: she was sharing a living space with the people who were most important to her, making them a part of her life and becoming a part of theirs on every level. Flash Mansion was a place where a family lived, and she thought Ronnie might have liked that, if he himself couldn’t be there with her.

Tonight, though, it was just Caitlin. Cisco was working late in the lab, Jesse was on a date with Wally, and Barry and Iris were having one of their Important Talks, probably on the roof of Jitters. It was sort of nice to have the house to herself, she thought as she shuffled around the kitchen in her slippers and robe. She’d decided to make some hot chocolate, then maybe watch a movie while she waited up to gossip with Jesse when she got home.

She was just pouring her hot chocolate into a mug and wondering what movie to watch when she felt the rush of wind behind her.

“Back already?” she asked over her shoulder, turning off the stove. “There’s hot chocolate if you want some.”

Caitlin turned toward the kitchen island, expecting to see Jesse sitting on one of the stools, probably with a snack already in hand. Sure enough there was someone there, sitting on a stool and leaning against the island.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t Jesse.

“Hello Caitlin,” said Eobard Thawne.

Caitlin dropped her hot chocolate, the heavy mug sliding from her slack fingers. In another rush of wind suddenly Thawne was standing before her, the fallen cup clutched in one hand, not a drop spilled onto the floor. He turned and placed it carefully on the island, then sped back to his previous seat, the rush of air blowing Caitlin’s hair out of her face.

Caitlin faced Thawne as she hadn’t faced him since they’d figured out he wasn’t Harrison Wells. She hadn’t been alone with him since they’d captured him the first time, and until he’d impersonated the Dr. Wells of Earth-2 he hadn’t spoken to her directly since then either. Now he was here, in her house, while everyone else was out. Had he known she was here by herself? Had he planned this, or did he think the others would be here?

Caitlin squared her shoulders. “Jesse will be back soon,” she said staunchly. “She was out with Wally, but she should be back any minute. And Cisco, he-”

“Caitlin,” Thawne said, the corners of his mouth turning upwards in amusement, “I did not come here to hurt you.”

Caitlin swallowed, frowning. “Then why are you here?”

“To talk,” Thawne told her simply. He was infuriatingly calm, and it seemed terribly incongruous with the pounding of her own heart.

Caitlin didn’t know what to do. Despite what she’d said she didn’t know when Jesse would be back, and she didn’t have any more idea when the boys would get home either. She herself had no powers, no weapons, and her phone was in the other room, where she had so shortly intended to be. She didn’t know how to  _ react _ to her former boss and current nemesis sitting in her kitchen, telling her he wanted to  _ talk. _

Unable to think of anything else to do, Caitlin fell back on the only thing she had left: indignation.

“I have nothing to say to you,” she said firmly, sticking her nose in the air.

Thawne smiled gently, the same smile he’d used on her and Cisco when he was pleased with their performance, back before they had known the truth about him. It had used to make her feel proud of herself. Now she just felt sick.

“My Caitlin,” he sighed, “always so brave.”

“I’m not  _ your _ anything,” Caitlin snapped. “You are nothing to me.”

Thawne actually tisked. “Why lie to yourself?” he asked. “I will never be nothing to you, any more than Cisco could ever be nothing to you. To either of us.”

“Cisco is my friend,” Caitlin argued. “You used us.”

“We were a team-” Thawne began.

“You betrayed us!” Caitlin shouted. “We were there for you, with you, when no one else was. You paid us back with lies!”

“I never lied to you,” Thawne insisted, then held up a hand when Caitlin opened her mouth. “I kept secrets, yes, but I never lied.”

He looked down at his hands, then back up at her, his face solemn. “Every moment of fondness I displayed for the two of you was genuine. Every moment.”

“I’m gonna throw up,” Caitlin announced.

“Like it or not, the three of us were a team,” Thawne told her, “long before Barry Allen or Joe West. You, out of every brilliant scientist of this era, you two alone were worthy of my attention.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel good about myself?” Caitlin asked.

“You are amazing, Caitlin Snow,” Thawne pressed. “I’ve told you that before and I meant it. You astound me, with your intelligence, your courage, your loyalty-”

“Stop!” Caitlin screamed, clapping her hands over her ears. “Just stop!”

“-and I don’t want to lose that,” Thawne shouted to be heard. Caitlin removed her hands and he lowered his voice. “I want back what I lost. You.”

Caitlin shook her head. “That will never happen,” she said firmly. “Nothing can ever be like it was. I’m not the person I was when I hung on your every word.”

“No,” Thawne agreed, surprising her. “You are infinitely stronger. You’ve grown so much, and I respect that.”

“If you respect me so much then respect what I want,” Caitlin challenged. “Leave.”

Thawne ignored her. “I don’t want to see your development stop here,” he said. “You have more potential than you could possibly understand. I want to see it realized.”

Caitlin shook her head. “What does that even mean?”

“It means,” Thawne said slowly. “That I can give you power. Power like I gave to Cisco.”

“You want to make me a metahuman?” Caitlin realized in disbelief.

“I want to make you someone more powerful than you can imagine,” he told her. “I want to make you strong, so that you never have to rely on anyone but yourself again.”

“I have friends I can rely on,” Caitlin reminded him. “I like it that way.”

“Really?” Thawne raised an eyebrow. “It never frustrates you, being the only one without powers? The only one left behind when the others go off to fight? The only one left  . . . vulnerable?”

“Never,” Caitlin lied. In truth she had, of course, sometimes wished for powers of her own. She was useful enough with her medical expertise that she didn’t often feel weak, but when tragedy struck her friends and she could do nothing but watch helplessly she had of course wanted the power to do more for them.

That didn’t mean she wanted that power from Thawne.

Thawne smiled as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. “All I ask is that you think about it,” he said. “Remember what things were like when it was just you and me and Cisco, and think about what we could be if all of us had powers.”

“If you think we’re going to form some sick little metahuman family for you then you’re crazy,” Caitlin spat.

Thawne laid a hand on the table, fingertips stretched out toward her but nowhere near enough to touch. Reaching out to her, waiting for her to reach back.

Caitlin folded her arms and glared.

“Think about it,” Thawne repeated. Then, in a rush of wind, he was gone.

She thought about calling Barry immediately, but decided against it. It was late, and she didn’t think Thawne would come back tonight, so tomorrow at work would be early enough. She went to bed feeling uneasy, but there was no point in calling everyone home just because Thawne had come to talk to her. He hadn’t laid a hand on her. She was fine.

She’d barely been asleep for a few hours when she was awoken by her phone buzzing on the nightstand. She raised her head tiredly, then reached out and put the phone to her ear, only to be met by a litany of semi-coherent babbling in Joe West’s voice.

“Joe, slow down,” Caitlin said groggily. “What happened to Wally?”

***

Jesse watched from the doorway as Joe sat beside Wally’s bed, one of his son’s hands clasped in his. He’d been sitting like that for more than an hour, and he didn’t show signs of moving. Iris sat on Wally’s other side, her hands in her lap, her pretty eyes troubled as they moved from her brother’s sleeping face to her father’s exhausted one.

Every once and a while Joe would bring Wally’s hand to his face and press it against his cheek, and in those moments his lip would tremble. Wally never reacted, and Joe continued to watch him lay there as though in peaceful slumber.

He knew perfectly well the peace wouldn’t last. He’d been through this once before.

“We were able to stabilize him fairly easily,” Caitlin informed him, placing a hand on Joe’s shoulder. “That’s good, it means he was relatively stable to begin with.”

“At the hospital,” Joe murmured, voice hoarse, “they said his heart stopped. Was it, like with Barry?”

“His heart was beating faster than the machines could detect, yes,” Caitlin assured him. “His cells are settling into a pattern of constant regeneration similar to Barry’s, and during REM sleep his pupils are moving too fast for the unaided eye to detect.”

She leaned over Wally and lifted one of his eyelids, showing the unbroken white of the eye beneath.

“When he wakes up he’ll be a speedster,” Jesse concluded.

“And all he’ll wanna do is be like Barry,” Joe countered. His face was haunted, like a man who’d seen tragedy in the past and could see it coming for him again.

“It’s not a bad thing dad,” Iris insisted.

“But is it safe?” Joe demanded, looking up at his daughter with terrified eyes. “How many of my kids am I expected to sit and watch . . .”

He trailed off, looking lost.

“Maybe a power like this will teach him to respect the danger he’s in,” Jesse suggested. “Maybe he’ll learn some caution.”

“Has he ever come across as cautious with you?” Joe wanted to know.

Jesse bowed her head, thinking of Wally’s actions at the movie theater. What Joe said was true, and she couldn’t refute it. She wouldn’t lie.

The sound of shuffling behind her drew Jesse’s attention. She turned, to see Jessica making her way through the cortex, a backpack on her back and dragging a second one behind her.

“Need some help?” Jesse offered.

Jessica shook her head. “I can do it,” she said, “I just need access to your speed canon.”

“You’re going home?” Jesse asked. “Now, of all times?”

Jessica shrugged, her face expressionless. “Our research is going nowhere and I . . . should be getting home.”

“Well, wait a little bit,” Jesse offered. “Wally will wake up eventually, then maybe he can take you back-”

“No,” Jessica interrupted. “There’s nothing for me here. I should go.”

“So you’re just going to leave before he wakes up?” Jesse said in confusion.

“I have no reason to stay,” Jessica said, voice hard.

“Nothing?” Jesse challenged. “There’s nothing here that you care about? Not even Wally?”

Jessica gave her a cold look. “That’s awfully sporting of you.”

Jesse blinked. “What?”

“As if you didn’t know,” Jessica spat.

“I know you and Wally are friends,” Jesse said firmly. “I don’t think the fact that he’s dating me changes that. I know it doesn’t for him.”

Jessica was silent for a moment, then-

“I have no interest in being friends with metahumans.”

Jesse gaped as Jessica made to move past her. “What?” she demanded, speeding in front of her doppelganger. “What the hell does that mean?”

Jessica held up her wrist, displaying her father’s metahuman detecting watch. As it was thrust into Jesse’s face it began beeping urgently, and when Jessica withdrew her arm it went quiet.

“What do you think this is?” Jessica wanted to know, pointing to it.

“A really obnoxious timepiece?” Jesse guessed sarcastically.

“It’s a metahuman awareness app,” Jessica recited. “It was designed to alert people to the presence of a metahuman.”

“So?” Jesse prompted.

“My father made them so people would know who to  _ avoid, _ ” Jessica explained in exasperation.

“Well your father’s not here!” Jesse snapped.

The look on Jessica’s face made her realized what she’d just done. She looked away, her face heating up in mortification.  _ What a thing to say! _ she chastised herself.

“I’m sorry,” Jesse said, uncomfortably. “That was uncalled for.”

“No,” Jessica said bitterly, “it’s true. I only came here because he wanted to study metahumans and now he’s gone. This project is over.”

She turned to go, but Jesse zipped in front of her again.

“And Wally?” she asked.

Jessica hesitated for a moment, glancing at the door to the sick room. Then she looked back at Jesse.

“You can have him,” she said, then brushed past her double on the way to the basement.

***

Barry could distantly remember a time when his job as a CSI had been a point of pride in his life. He’d enjoyed coming to work, solving mysteries, putting his Sherlock Scan (as he liked to call it) to good use. He’d even enjoyed the paperwork, to a certain extent; he’d liked painting a vivid picture of a brutal murder with his words. It had been more than just a way to prove his father’s innocence, it had been a way to help people by doing something he was good at. One way or another, it used to be more than a job.

Now it was just that: a job. Just something he did to pay the bills. With no family in prison anymore his original purpose for becoming a CSI was gone, and with his work as the Flash fulfilling his need to help people his work at the precinct had lost its spark. Investigating ordinary crimes, ones that had nothing to do with metahumans, just wasn’t fun anymore.

It was in this frame of mind that he came into work, a coffee in one hand just to give him the energy to get through yet another boring day. He would carefully not use his powers at the crime scenes and then speed through processing the evidence in his lab, then probably play on his phone until it was an appropriate time to leave. Boring.

He yawned and took a sip of coffee, heading for the stairs.

“Allen!” called the voice of Captain Singh from behind him.

Barry stifled a groan, anticipating another lecture on punctuality as he turned around to face the Captain. When he stood face to face with his superior though, Barry stopped short. Standing next to Singh was none other than Patty Spivot, Joe’s former partner and -- Barry’s heart pounded -- his own ex-girlfriend. She wasn’t wearing a uniform however, and was instead dressed in street clothes, like Barry.

“Patty!” he said reflexively, then winced. “I mean, Captain.”

“Glad to see you’re already acquainted,” Singh said sarcastically. “Allen, you’ll be overseeing Spivot’s training.”

“Training?” Barry asked, perplexed, then turned to Patty. “You mean you graduated already?”

“Well I’d taken a lot of the necessary classes already,” Patty explained. “Plus I got into an accelerated program, so,” she threw out her arms, “here I am.”

“Here you are,” Barry repeated. Already his mind was spinning in a hundred different directions, all of them on the fast track to disaster. Patty thought she knew he was the Flash, but he’d never outright told her. Did she still think that? Why had she come back to Central City to complete her training? Was it because of him? Things were still rocky with Iris, and having his ex-girlfriend around could  _ not _ improve matters.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Singh concluded, walking off towards his office and leaving Patty and Barry staring at each other.

“So,” Patty began nervously, “should we go upstairs?”

“Upstairs?” Barry repeated, then shook himself. “Right, upstairs. To the lab. Where we’re going to work.”

“That’s the idea,” Patty confirmed, then led the way up the staircase with Barry trailing nervously behind her.

Once they were alone in the lab Patty turned back to him, and Barry allowed himself one deep breath. “So,” he began, “did you decide to come back to Central City to complete your training, or did they just assign you?”

“I chose this assignment,” Patty confirmed, and a weight settled in Barry’s stomach. “I came back to find someone.”

Barry’s heart dropped like a stone.

“Patty,” he said, wondering how to put it delicately. “Um, I know that we had our . . . thing, but I’m not sure if going back to that is the best-”

“Barry,” Patty interrupted, a smile spreading across her face. “Not you.”

Barry blinked. “Not me?”

“Not you,” Patty confirmed. “Lisa Snart.”

Barry blinked again. “You came back to Central City to find Lisa Snart?”

“I’ve been tracking her movements, and recently my sources tell me she’s returned to Central City,” Patty explained, skirting around Barry to put her bag on the table as Barry watched her in utter confusion. “She’s been tracking down various metahumans with a grudge against the Flash: Deathbolt, Peek-a-Boo, Rainbow Raider-”

She took off her jacket and draped it over Barry’s chair.

“So you decided to, what, investigate?” Barry asked. “As a CSI rather than a Detective?”

“Well,” Patty smiled knowingly, “I was thinking of helping the Flash take her down.”

Barry looked away. “I’m sure he’d be glad of the help,” he said, trying not to sound cagey, “but how are you going to get in contact with him?”

“Don’t be ridiculous Barry,” Patty gave him an amused look. “I know you’re the Flash.”

“I told you I’m not,” Barry said, in perfect honestly. He had, in fact, made that claim.

Patty rolled her eyes. “Barry,” she said, “this is serious. She could be a real threat to you-”

“A real threat to the Flash,” Barry corrected, “who I’m sure has it covered.”

“Barry,” Patty approached him slowly, like he might bolt at any moment. “I know you’re the Flash. I can help you-”

“No you can’t,” Barry insisted. Patty frowned, but Barry shook his head. “I’m not the Flash, Patty. I don’t need your help.”

Patty gave him a despairing look, but Barry met her gaze with steady eyes. He didn’t want her involved in this, as his girlfriend or in any other capacity. It was best that she stay out of it.

When Barry’s expression didn’t change Patty shook her head in disgust.

“I really thought we were past this Barry,” she said, then swiftly closed the distance between them. For a moment Barry thought she might actually hit him, but she merely bumped deliberately against his shoulder on her way out of the lab.

Barry rubbed his shoulder, wincing as he looked after her. It was better this way, he told himself, and he thought that with a little time he might just believe it.

***

Two week into Wally’s coma, Cisco decided an intervention was in order.

Jesse couldn’t deny that she had spent the last twelve days doing nothing but moping. She refused to leave Wally’s bedside to work with Caitlin, or even Cisco, and she hadn’t been to her own lab recently either. She only tokenly went out on patrol, hurrying back to resume her vigil after one lap of the city and a few petty crimes stopped, if that. Even the press was beginning to notice that Jesse Quick was starting to phone it in, and there were a number of distressing rumors that she was losing her powers for some reason.

“The city needs you,” Joe had told her one evening as she joined him in Wally’s room.

“It needs you too,” she pointed out, and Joe couldn’t argue with that. Detective West hadn’t exactly been on the job either.

To her credit, Iris West Ace Reporter continued as though nothing was wrong. She did her best to fight the rumors that Jesse Quick was losing her edge, and she seemed to be trying to put on a brave face, but anyone who knew her could see how close she was to breaking. There was no way of knowing which she feared more: Wally waking up and immediately putting himself in danger, or Wally not waking up at all. She might not have known herself.

After two weeks of this though, Cisco had had enough. “Joe standing guard is more than enough for tonight,” he said as he hustled Jesse and Iris down the hall. “You guys are gonna take two hours off to watch a movie.”

“But-” Jesse began.

“We’re only going a few doors down,” Cisco assured them. “We’ll hear the machines if anything goes wrong.”

“But-” Iris started.

“Caitlin’s going to be here too,” Cisco promised. “The best medical care available, right around the corner.”

Iris sighed as they reached the lab that Cisco had converted into an impromptu movie theater, already occupied by Barry, Caitlin and Hartley.

“Any more questions?” Cisco asked cheerfully.

Iris gave him a withering look, then rolled her eyes. “Just what movie we’re watching.”

_ Rent _ , obviously. Joe wasn’t joining them that evening, so they could all joke about how similar he looked to Jesse L. Martin to their hearts’ content. Everyone was subdued at first, but by the second act they were all singing along to the songs and throwing popcorn at the screen when Roger and Mimi acted like idiots. Caitlin started tearing up when Angel died and Iris rubbed her back soothingly, and the movie ended with the proper emotional catharsis experienced by all.

Iris agreed to go home and get some sleep and Barry offered to give her a lift, so as Caitlin went to check on Wally -- and perhaps persuade Joe to go home as well -- Cisco and Jesse walked Hartley out.

“I have to hand it to you Cisco,” Hartley said once the three of them were alone, “that was a good movie.”

“This is news to you?” Jesse laughed.

Hartley shrugged. “I’d never seen it before,” he admitted. “I like to judge things on their own merits rather than by their reputation.”

“Or really, Mr. I-Don’t-Foresee-Myself-Trusting-Someone-Wearing-A-T-shirt?” Cisco argued.

“That wasn’t your reputation,” Hartley countered. “It was your appearance. How a person presents themselves says a lot about them.”

“Wait wait wait,” Jesse interrupted, shaking her head as though to clear it. “Back up. You’ve never seen  _ Rent _ before?”

Hartley shook his head. “Movies with openly LGBT characters weren’t my parents’ cup of tea, and after-” he paused, “- _ them _ I went through a phase where I disliked anything stereotypically gay.”

“ _ Rent _ is stereotypically gay?” Cisco wondered.

“Liking  _ Rent _ is,” Hartley corrected. “I didn’t want to risk indulging in a guilty pleasure, so I never saw it.”

Jesse felt a pang of loss, as she usually did in these situations. Sometimes, when she was just hanging out with Cisco and Hartley, she could almost fool herself into thinking she was back in her own timeline. Moments like these however jarred her back to the present, to the reality where her entirely life had been ripped away from her and replaced with something similar, but not the same.

“Jesse?” Hartley said in a concerned voice, frowning at her.

Jesse forced a smile. She couldn’t imagine what expression she’d been wearing a moment ago. “Yeah?”

“You looked upset,” Hartley told her. “What’s wrong?”

Jesse hesitated, then decided the truth was probably best. “In . . . in the other timeline,” Jesse explained, “ _ Rent _ was one of your favorite movies. You loved it, knew all the words to the songs. We watched it all the time.”

Hartley blinked, looking taken aback. “Did Harrison show it to me?” he wondered.

“No,” Jesse corrected, “it was me. I thought you might like it, and then you did, and it became . . . one of our things.”

“I’m sorry,” Hartley said softly, his eyes sad. “I don’t remember.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” Jesse countered, smiling weakly.

“And I’m sorry I brought it up if you guys are gonna get  _ weird _ over it,” Cisco rolled his eyes. “If I didn’t know better I’d say sparks were flying.”

“Don’t be silly  _ Cisquito, _ ” Hartley purred, throwing an arm around Cisco’s shoulders. “You know I only have eyes for you.”

Cisco laughed, and Hartley laughed, and Jesse couldn’t help but laugh too. This, _ this, _ was right. This was normal. This was home and family and the way things should be. She let the boys pull ahead of her a little bit so that she could watch them, Hartley still with his arm around Cisco, Cisco leaning heavily on Hartley as they weaved drunkenly all over the hallway.

In moments like these, she could almost forget how fucked up everything was.

***

Caitlin would have stayed with Wally all night, slept on the little cot she’d been using to keep ‘round the clock watch on him, but Joe insisted that if everyone was going home to get some rest then Caitlin wouldn’t be left out. He shooed her out of the sickroom until she gave up, and yawning made her way down to the parking lot long after everyone else had already left.

She still hadn’t told anyone about Thawne’s visit. Wally falling into a coma had delayed the conversation and now it never seemed to be the right time. Everyone else was so worried about him it didn’t feel right to add her own anxieties to the pot they were all stewing in. Thawne hadn’t hurt her, and it didn’t seem like he had any intention of hurting her. He hadn’t been back. It was fine.

She very carefully did  _ not _ think about what he’d said about her and Cisco, or the offer he’d made her.

Caitlin paused next to her car door and began digging in her purse for keys. They always fell down towards the bottom, and she had to rest the bag against the window to really reach inside without dropping it. She wasn’t paying much attention to her surroundings as she fished around for the means to get into her car, so when a familiar voice came from behind her it took her completely by surprise.

“Hey Stranger,” called the smug, silky drawl of Lisa Snart.

Caitlin whirled around, to see the criminal leaning against the car next to hers, a satisfied look on her face and the gold gun in one hand.

“Tisk tisk,” Lisa narrowed her eyes disapprovingly, “didn’t anyone ever teach you to have your keys ready  _ before _ you go outside?”

“What do you want?” Caitlin demanded, glaring. “You have another bomb in your neck? We’re not helping you again.”

“Still so uptight,” Lisa remarked, pouting. “I’m beginning to think you don’t like me.”

“We  _ don’t _ like you,” Caitlin hissed.

“And here I thought Cisco had a soft spot for me.” Lisa shrugged unconcernedly. “Oh well, guess I’ll just have to go with Plan B.”

“Plan B?” Caitlin repeated.

Lisa pushed off the car to stand straight, and Caitlin took a reflexively half step away from her. Then Lisa raised her gun, pointing it directly at Caitlin. Caitlin’s eyes went wide, and Lisa smiled cruelly.

“Apply a little leverage.”

***

Cisco had always prided himself on being the fun one in his group of friends.

Sure Barry was cheerful and Wally was rebellious and Iris was up to date on all the best hangouts in the city, but Cisco was the one who was just  _ fun. _ He offered wit and humor in the bleakest of situations. If the group went out, it was because he was the one who suggested it. He organized karaoke nights and bullied the others into watching good movies. He was  _ fun _ .

So Caitlin getting abducted as a result of one of the fun activities he had suggested was definitely doing some damage to his reputation.

It didn’t feel good, knowing that he was the one responsible for one of his friends getting kidnapped. Caitlin, out of all of them, had been kidnapped more than enough. No one else was blaming him -- hell, Joe was blaming  _ himself, _ of all people -- but Cisco still couldn’t help but feel that it was all his fault.

“I should have stayed with her,” Cisco lamented.

“I should have offered her a lift home,” Barry countered.

“And I could have done the same,” Jesse concluded. “We all could have done things differently, Cisco.”

“But it was my idea!” Cisco insisted.

“It was my idea that she go home,” Joe told him. “What’s important now is that we find her.”

That, of course, was the hard part.

It wasn’t that they didn’t know who had taken her. The toxic adhesive with the distinctive appearance of molten gold left on Caitlin’s car made it fairly obvious who was to blame, but finding out where Golden Glider was hiding was easier said than done.

It also didn’t feel good to know that one of his weapons was being used to hurt his friends. Again.

“She likes you,” Iris reminded Cisco. “Think you could get in contact with her? At least find out what she wants?”

“She didn’t give me her number!” Cisco protested.

“What about where she hangs out?” Iris pressed. “You could go talk to her.”

“She just snatched a member of the most powerful crime-stopping team in the city,” Cisco said, frowning. “I don’t think she’s gonna be hanging around Saints and Sinners.”

“So, we have absolutely no way to track her?” Jesse concluded, looking around at the congregation of Central City’s mightiest heroes.

Central City’s mightiest heroes hung their heads.

“I might,” Barry piped up. He’d been strangely quiet throughout the meeting, and Cisco had almost forgotten he was there. They all turned to him now, to find him looking ashamedly down at his shoes.

“What is it?” Joe asked suspiciously.

Barry ran a hand nervously through his hair. “Patty.”

***

Patty Spivot had, of course, considered vigilante work in the past.

It had been just after her father’s death, when she’d wanted nothing more in the world than to kill Mark Mardon for what he’d done to her family. She would track him, hunt him, and put him down like a dog in some dingy alley. She wouldn’t need to stop there either, she’d reasoned; she’d get herself a fast motorcycle and clean up the city, until crime was at all time low or the cops caught up with her, whichever came first.

Eventually she’d decided against it. She became one of the cops instead, determined that she would take care of Mardon in a way that didn’t involve her becoming a fugitive. Eventually she’d done just that, but the desire to clean up the city hadn’t really gone away. There were still plenty of criminals the cops just couldn’t take down, and some that even the Flash wouldn’t touch. Someone needed to do something about them.

So she’d started tracking Lisa Snart.

Golden Glider, as she liked to call herself, had been building up something of a criminal empire ever since the mysterious disappearance of her brother. She’d been gathering metahumans who had fled Central City, many of whom had a grudge against the Flash. Patty had meant to hand her information over to Barry, help him in any way she could, but once she’d returned to Central City Barry had completely dismissed her. It had hurt, but she was used to that, and on some level she’d been expecting it.

She always knew, deep down, she’d have to do this herself.

So when she finally got a visit from the Flash, she was understandably confused.

“Flash!” she exclaimed when he’d made his entrance, speeding into the lab late one evening and blowing all her papers around.

“Detective Spivot,” he replied, his voice odd and echoey, as though he were speaking through a voice modulator. His face was blurry too, and she could only guess that he was vibrating it back and forth to obscure his features.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, annoyed. “And dressed like that too. You could have just come in your normal clothes.”

“I hear you’re the person to talk to about finding Lisa Snart,” he said.

Patty blinked, surprised. Barry had completely dismissed her efforts in tracking down Snart, but Flash was interested. Had she been wrong, this whole time?

“Are you not Barry?” she blurted, then winced. If it  _ wasn’t _ Barry then she’d just made a complete fool of herself.

Flash sighed, then stopped vibrating his face. He pulled back his hood, to reveal Barry’s messy hair and freckled face.

“No, Patty,” he sighed. “It’s me.”

“So I was right!” Patty crowed triumphantly.

“Yeah,” Barry admitted. “And I’m hoping you’ll be right again. I need your help.”

***

Patty tracked Lisa’s hideout to a warehouse down by the docks. Barry and Jesse would have sped there as soon as they had the address, but Patty and Cisco both insisted on coming. Iris agreed to remain with Wally, but Joe wanted to be there in his official capacity, in case they had the opportunity to arrest Lisa.

“You know what happened the last time you tried to rescue Caitlin without me,” he told Cisco seriously.

Cisco rolled his eyes. “That was a long time ago and you know it.”

Joe didn’t answer, but his lips twitched into a smile.

When they reached the warehouse Barry went in first, closely followed by Cisco. They found Caitlin tied to a chair, gagged and blindfolded, in the center of the otherwise empty floor.

“Check for traps,” Barry hissed to Jesse, keeping his eyes fixed on Caitlin.

Suddenly Jesse was a flurry of activity around the outside of the warehouse, but almost as soon as she’d started she stopped. Cisco looked at her in confusion, but she shook her head. Nothing.

“I’m going in,” Barry announced. Before anyone could protest he zipped into the room, and in the blink of an eye he was back outside with the others, Caitlin’s still-bound form clutched in his arms.

“Are you okay?” Cisco demanded, removing her blindfold even as Barry set her down on her own two feet.

With her hands free she was able to remove her own gag. “Rainbow Raider!” she cried as soon as she could speak, and immediately all of them began looking around wildly, preparing for an attack.

None came.

Jesse and Barry searched the warehouse, and then the surrounding warehouses, but there was no sign of Rainbow Raider. There was no sign of Golden Glider either, or any criminals -- metahuman or otherwise -- whatsoever. The place was deserted.

“He  _ was _ here,” Caitlin insisted, looking around in confusion.

“Maybe he’s on break?” Cisco suggested weakly.

“I don’t like this,” Joe shook his head. “Let’s get out of here.”

Nothing prevented their leaving, Barry and Jesse keeping pace with Joe’s car and Patty’s motorcycle as they made their way back to STAR Labs. There were no explosions, no tripwires, not so much as a net flung over them as they went, nothing to suggest what kind of trap they had walked into. There was no trap at all. Nothing happened.

“What’s her angle?” Patty wondered when they were parked outside STAR Labs.

“I don’t know,” Cisco admitted. “But I don’t like this.”

They found out what the angle was as soon as they got inside.

“Iris!” Barry yelled upon entering Wally’s room to find her lying on the floor, her chair knocked to one side. Immediately Barry went to cradle her in his arms, gently shaking her and calling her name, and eventually she blinked her eyes open.

“Peak . . . A-Boo,” she said weakly.

“She was here?” Barry asked.

“What did she want?” Patty wanted to know.

Iris shook her head. “Don’t know,” she breathed, still looking dazed. She clutched at her head and sat up, though Barry was reluctant to let go of her.

“Oh god,” said Cisco suddenly. He turned and sprinted from the room, everyone except Joe and Barry following him, until they all came to a stop outside his workroom.

The place had very clearly been ransacked. Papers were all over the floor, several glassboards had been overturned, and as Jesse entered the room first she nearly slipped on a stray pen. Cisco immediately followed, brushing past her as he made his way to a filing cabinet which had clearly been locked and then forced open.

“No no no,” he chanted, flicking quickly through the papers within, most of which seemed to have been removed and then scattered on the floor around the cabinet.

“What is it?” Patty demanded. “Is something missing?”

“The plans for the cold gun,” Cisco said despairingly. “They’re gone.”

“This was her plan all along,” Jesse realized.

Patty closed her eyes and leaned against the doorframe. “And we walked right into it.”

***

In the wake of Golden Glider’s perfectly executed theft, Caitlin found herself all but forgotten. Between Barry fawning over Iris, Joe worrying over Wally and Cisco lamenting the loss of his tech, only Jesse remembered that Caitlin might want to go home and rest. She left as soon as she saw Caitlin settled though, eager to get back to Wally now that Joe had to spread his attention over two injured children.

It was Caitlin’s first time in the house alone since Thawne’s visit, and the empty house suddenly gave her the creeps. It was too quiet, and she kept thinking she heard footstep in other rooms or the ominous noises of moving air without an open window. She picked up a heavy glass modern art piece and went room by room, searching the place top to bottom for any sign of an intruder, holding her weapon high above her head as she nudged open each door with one foot.

Finally, when no intruder was revealed, Caitlin let herself sigh with relief. She went back to her room, changed into pajamas and climbed into bed, but despite how tired she was for some reason she just couldn’t get to sleep. She tried playing on her phone until her eyelids drooped, but as soon as she put it down her brain immediately started down unpleasant paths once more.

After about half an hour she threw off the covers and, deciding that she needed a snack, made her way to the kitchen.

Thawne was waiting for her there.

“I heard you had an interesting day,” Thawne said placidly.

Caitlin stopped in the doorway and, forcing down the slight twinge of fear, glared at him. “Are you spying on us?”

Thawne opened his hands demonstratively. “It’s in the nature of family to want to keep tabs on each other, isn’t it?”

“Family Facebook stalk each other,” Caitlin corrected. “They don’t put cameras up in each other’s houses.”

“There are no cameras in this house,” Thawne assured her.

“How oddly specific,” Caitlin replied, making a mental note to have Barry and Cisco check STAR Labs for bugs.

“You all did well today,” Thawne praised, as though this were two years ago, their team just starting out, her and Cisco and Barry in need of constant reassurance from an authority figure they trusted. “However, you could have done better,” he continued, suddenly stern like a teacher. Caitlin was ashamed to admit that it made her feel a twinge of guilt, knowing she had disappointed him.

She quashed that feeling down.

“You were a lot of help,” Caitlin said sarcastically, thrusting out her chin in open defiance.

“Last time I was here you insinuated you preferred relying on your friends.” Thawne shrugged. “I was merely respecting your wish.”

“Then respect this wish,” Caitlin spat. “Get out of my life and don’t come back.”

“I will,” Thawne conceded, surprising her. Was he actually going to leave? “After,” he went on, and Caitlin’s heart sank, “you answer one question.”

“And what’s that?” Caitlin demanded.

Thawne looked at her, a smile playing around the corners of his mouth but not yet spreading across his face. It was unnerving, and Caitlin felt distinctly as though he was toying with her.

“Tell me,” Thawne instructed, “are you really content to be the damsel in distress?”

“What kind of a question is that?” Caitlin demanded.

“You were helpless today,” Thawne told her, his tone hard but his eyes beseeching. “You had no ability to stop what happened to you, and as a result you were used against your friends. Do you truly enjoy being that powerless?”

“I’m not powerless,” Caitlin insisted. “I’m useful to the team-”

“As their on-call doctor,” Thawne scoffed. “Is that what you want to be? Barry Allen’s personal nurse?”

“That’s not fair!” Caitlin protested. “I help the team understand metahuman powers, I synthesize formulas for a variety of purposes, and-”

“And when faced with an opponent how much good does that do you?” Thawne wanted to know. “Can it save you when you inevitably find yourself staring down the barrel of the cold gun?”

At that Caitlin faltered. She’d never really thought of herself in terms of physical strength, but she had to admit she didn’t exactly stack up to the rest of the team. Her strength was in her mind, and she’d always been fine with that, but as Cisco grew into his powers and Iris began using a gun more and more often Caitlin had to admit that she had begun to feel a little left behind. Even Wally was in a speedster coma, soon to awaken to the same power that had made Barry and Jesse heroes.

Today had just gone to show exactly how vulnerable she was as the only member of the team without any kind of defense.

Caitlin said nothing, but Thawne clearly thought he could see the answer in her eyes. “You know I’m right,” he insisted. “So I’ll ask again: do you really want to rely on others for the rest of your life?”

Yet another denial rose in Caitlin’s throat, a simple refusal to answer, but for some reason she couldn’t get it past her lips. She could see Cisco’s terrified face when he’d had to rescue her from Heatwave, and feel her own fear for his safety from the bomb under her chair. She could picture Barry’s scared expression when he’d seen her tied up in the middle of the warehouse, and imagine the worry the rest of the team had felt when they’d realized she had been kidnapped  _ again. _ She didn’t want them to be afraid for her, and she didn’t want to be afraid for them.

In his own twisted way, Thawne was right. She didn’t want to live like this anymore.

“No,” she admitted quietly. “I don’t.”

She had answered Thawne’s question, and she expected him to leave. He had what he wanted, her admission that he was right, that he was always right when it came to her and Cisco. He knew them inside and out, better than they knew themselves. The Reverse-Flash had won again, and now he would leave her to live with her defeat.

Thawne, however, did not leave. Instead he grinned, a horrible manic grin that made Caitlin’s blood run cold.

“Perfect,” he said, and then there was a flash of red lightning and they were moving. Thawne’s strong arms were like iron bars beneath her, and the wind was roaring in her ears. Caitlin screamed, but the sound was whipped away, and she didn’t dare struggle lest Thawne drop her going faster than the speed of sound.

Eventually they came to a stop, and as Caitlin looked wildly around she recognized their destination as Jitters.

“What?” she breathed, but Thawne was already moving again, vibrating his whole body and hers along with it. They zipped forward, only a short distance this time, and suddenly they were inside the industrial freezer Caitlin knew must be in the back.

“Hey!” she protested as Thawne set her back on her feet, but then there was another flash of lightning and suddenly he was gone.

“No!” Caitlin screamed, throwing herself against the heavy metal door, but unsurprisingly it didn’t budge. She banged with her fists, calling out to someone who might be outside, but the coffee shop was closed for the evening, already deserted. She screamed in terror, pounding on the door, but nobody could hear her.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, Caitlin slumped against the door. She could see her panting breath in the air front of her, and the tears that worked their way down her face felt as though they would freeze to her skin. She fell to her knees, hiccuping and shivering violently, but there was nothing more to be done. She wasn’t getting out on her own, and no one was coming.

She was alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're curious about jessica's behavior, a later chapter will have a better explanation, but for now suffice it to say that she's grieving. the show portrays her as someone who just bounces back from trauma like it's nothing, but i don't wanna do that. trauma like being abducted and held prisoner, losing everything you've ever known, and finding out a family member was impersonated by a supervillain isn't something you can just brush off. she's dealing with what happened in an unhealthy way, but this isn't the end of her story, she'll be back.


	10. Frosted

Cold.

_ “Oh my god! Boss, there’s someone in here!” _

So cold.

_ “Where did they find her?” _

_ “The walk-in freezer at some coffee shop.” _

So very, very cold.

_ “Her body temperature is below freezing. She should be dead!” _

_ “Her heart’s still beating, so she still has a chance.” _

_ “We need hot water bottles, thermal blankets, anything!” _

Caitlin felt herself drifting in and out of consciousness. There were lights above her, and voices all around her, and dimly she realized she was moving. She was lying on some kind of bed that was moving swiftly down a hallway. A gurney? There were people on either side of her, shouting to each other, calling out for things. Things to keep her warm. Doctors? Nurses? Was she in a hospital?

All of that, however, was inconsequential. What mattered right now was that she was cold. So cold, colder than she’d ever been in her life. She wasn’t numb, that would have been a blessing; instead she felt like she were being stabbed by a thousand tiny needles all over her body. It was as if she were covered in the jagged sharpness of ice crystals, as if her whole body was encased in frost, and all she could feel was pain and cold. She didn’t know it was possible to be this cold and still be alive, but somehow she was managing it.

She only knew she was alive because she could still feel the cold.

The heat, when it came, nearly made her sob with relief. She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that too much heat on freezing skin should create a burning sensation. She wasn’t burning though, if anything the heat chased away that sting of the ice until she could feel herself relaxing. She wanted more, more of that heat, and she could feel it seeping into her skin as though she were soaking it up like water into a sponge.

_ “The hot water bottles, they’re frozen over!” _

_ “Touch the blanket, it feels like it’s going to crack!” _

_ “She’s freezing you idiots, go get some more bottles!” _

She had stopped moving -- they had stopped moving her? -- and was now lying still beneath a single bright light. More heat was being applied to her, placed on top of her and packed in around her, and the cold that had once been unbearable was now merely painful. She needed more heat, more than they were giving her. She wanted it, so badly, more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life. She concentrated on the feeling, willing the heat to seep into her body like it had before. She could feel the heat from around her soaking into her skin, fighting the cold, but it still wasn’t enough. She frowned, trying to focus, trying to pull in more heat.

_ “What the hell?” _

_ “Oh my god!” _

The light above her was pressing on her closed eyes, and she opened them to look up at it. Where there was light, there was heat, she reasoned. She tried to focus, to concentrate on the feeling of the light on her face. It was ever so slightly warm, and she tried to focus on that feeling, of the bright light warming her face.

Glorious heat flooded her frozen cheeks, and the light went out.

Caitlin opened her eyes. Above her was a simple fluorescent light fixture, the kind they put in office buildings. It was obscured, however, by a thick layer of frost still creeping over the plastic covering. Weakly she lifted her head, to find herself in what looked like an intensive care unit at a hospital. Yes, a hospital, that’s where she was. Central City General Hospital. She’d done her residency here.

All around her bed, standing a few paces back, was a ring of people. Some wore lab coats and some wore scrubs, but all of them wore the ID badges of hospital staff. Doctors and nurses. Most of them had their hands held up, or else clutched tight to their chests, and were staring at her in shock and horror.

“What-” she croaked, her voice hoarse like she hadn’t used it in weeks, “what’s happening?”

“She’s a metahuman!” cried one of the men in lab coats, pointing an accusing finger at Caitlin. “Call the police!”

“Don’t be an idiot,” said a short, fat woman in scrubs. “What’s she done?”

The man in the lab coat looked taken aback, but didn’t have an answer for her.

“I’m not a metahuman,” Caitlin interjected weakly. “I’m just cold.”

The woman in scrubs shook her head. “No, honey, you’re a lot more than cold.”

Caitlin shook her head in denial, but the woman simply pointed at the floor. Caitlin looked down, to see that a ring of creeping frost surrounded her bed. All around her the hot water bottles they’d been using to warm her up were frozen solid, and the thermal blanket she’d been under was as stiff and as brittle as a sheet of ice. She tried to shift it off her and it snapped in half.

“This can’t be . . .” Caitlin whispered, looking at the layer of frost covering everything around her. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t honestly be doing this!

In desperation she grabbed the IV pole for support, planning to get out of bed, but no sooner had she touched it than ice spread over it too. As she watched it froze, cracked and shattered in her grip, scattering frozen chips of metal all over the floor.

Caitlin swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I have to get out of here,” she said, half to herself. “I have to-”

“No way honey,” said the woman in scrubs, coming to stand between Caitlin and her way around the bed. “You’re not going anywhere until we stabilize you.”

“You can’t!” Caitlin shook her head. “Only STAR Labs can!”

“STAR Labs is shut down honey,” said the woman, shaking her head. “How long have you been in that freezer?”

Caitlin skirted around her, trying not to touch her. “I can’t explain it,” she called, “I just have to get to STAR Labs!”

“Wait!” called the woman, one hand shooting out to grab Caitlin’s arm.

“No!” Caitlin screamed, but it was too late. The woman’s fingers closed over the freezing skin of Caitlin’s forearm, and immediately a thin layer of ice covered them. She screamed, trying to withdraw her hand, but even when she pulled back ice kept creeping over it.

“I’m sorry!” Caitlin sobbed, backing away. “I really, I’m sorry!”

“You freak!” yelled the man in the lab coat as the woman in scrubs continued to scream. “Look what you’ve done!”

“I’m sorry,” Caitlin repeated, “I’m sorry!”

She turned, to find that the rest of the people in the ICU were clearing away, fighting each other to get out of her path as fast as they could. Caitlin broke into a run.

“I’m sorry,” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t put that in water!”

***

“How is she already missing again?” Iris demanded, glaring furiously around the room.

Cisco, Barry and Jesse all hung their heads. They were seated around the cortex, all of them except Joe, who was at work, and Caitlin, who was once again unaccounted for. Iris was the only one standing, pacing back and forth in front of the row of superheroes like a schoolteacher in front of a bunch of naughty children.

Barry piped up first. “She got home last night,” he insisted. “We know she got home last night.”

“As evidenced by her phone,” Iris held it up demonstratively, “which was plugged in by her bed.”

“So someone had to have broken into the house,” Cisco concluded.

“Who could do that?” Iris wanted to know.

“Anyone when it’s unguarded,” Jesse said miserably. “The security system’s not up to much against metahumans, and I’m sure Lisa Snart knows how to get through one. Without any of us there she was a sitting duck.”

“Note to self,” Cisco grumbled. “Never leave Caitlin alone again.”

Iris dropped her drill sergeant routine to give Cisco a sympathetic look. “We’re going to get her back,” she told him. “The three of you just need to put those big brains together and figure out what happened to her.”

Cisco raised a hand. “Lisa got what she wanted,” he began ticking off supervillains on his fingers, “so she has no reason to kidnap Caitlin again. She’s got Peek-A-Boo and Rainbow Raider at least working for her now.”

“We put Trickster away a month ago,” Jesse chimed in, and Cisco ticked off another finger.

“And if Mardon or Nimbus have a reason to kidnap her I can’t think of it,” Barry concluded. “So that leaves us with . . . no one.”

“No,” said Iris patiently. “It leaves us with the Reverse Flash.”

Barry’s eyes widened in horror, and beside him Jesse and Cisco we wearing much the same expression. They were silent for a moment, and Iris knew they were all thinking exactly what she was thinking. No one had wanted to think much about Thawne since he had impersonated Harry, least of all about the things he had said to Caitlin and Cisco. Most important among those things was his promise, to come back for both of them.

Had he made good on that promise? Had he “come back” for Caitlin?

“So,” said Barry, once the silence had lasted long enough that they all knew they’d reached the same conclusion, “how do we find him?”

Jesse turned to Cisco. “Maybe you can get a vision?” she suggested.

Cisco shook his head. “That only works with breachers,” he explained. “And alternate timelines.”

“But it also works with time  _ travelers, _ ” Jesse argued. “We don’t need to find Caitlin-”

“-we just need to find Thawne,” Barry finished for her. In a flash of gold lightning he vanished, only to reappear with a piece of angular metal in one hand.

“Here,” he offered it to Cisco. “It’s from the Time Sphere. If there’s one thing Thawne cared about, it was that thing.”

Cisco hesitated a moment, glancing at Jesse, but at her grave nod he reached out and took the hunk of metal from Barry. There was a momentary pause as he drew in a ragged breath, but then he opened his eyes.

He did not look at all encouraged by what he’d seen.

“Guys,” he said, holding out the Time Sphere fragment for Barry to take, “we may have a bigger problem here.”

“What did you see?” Barry asked, frowning.

“Caitlin,” said Cisco, “but, not our Caitlin. Earth-2 Caitlin.”

“Killer Frost?” Barry realized. “But, she’s dead.”

“I know,” Cisco nodded, “but that was definitely her I saw. She and her murderhusband were getting cozy on a rooftop somewhere.”

“How do you know it was Earth-2 Ronnie?” Jesse wanted to know.

“Because he was cuddling Earth-2 Caitlin,” Cisco replied.

“Could it have been the past?” Iris wanted to know. “That is a piece of a time machine, after all.”

“Why would it show me Earth-2 though?” Cisco wondered. “That thing’s from Earth-1.”

“So what are you saying?” Jesse asked. “That they’re alive?”

“And they’re here,” Cisco confirmed. “I don’t know how, but they are.”

Iris opened her mouth to ask what made Cisco so sure when suddenly her phone began to ring. She fished it out of her pocket, to find her father’s picture flashing on the screen.

“Dad?” she asked, putting the phone to her ear.

“Barry’s phone is off again,” her dad said by way of explanation. “He and Jesse had better get down to Central City General, now.”

“Why?” Iris demanded, worry gnawing at her. They had too many problems to deal with already.

“Metahuman attack,” he said simply. “Apparently some woman froze the entire ICU solid. She’s out in the street now, in front of the hospital.”

“Okay,” said Iris, and the line went dead.

“What’s up?” Barry asked.

“You were right,” Iris told Cisco, “it was Killer Frost. She’s outside Central City General now.”

Before she could say anything else, Barry and Jesse were gone.

***

Barry came to a skidding stop outside Central City General Hospital, Jesse right behind him. People were all over the street, screaming and running away from the front entrance. The two of them had to fight through the press of bodies just to see what was going on, but eventually they made it out onto open ground.

There, standing in the empty space of the ambulance bay, was Killer Frost. She wasn’t in her costume but it was clearly her; she was wearing pajamas, of all things, but the white hair and glowing blue eyes were unmistakable.

As was the trail of frost she was leaving in her wake.

“Frost!” Barry shouted, and immediately she turned her attention to him.

“Barry!” she said, looking oddly relieved. She started towards him, and Barry pulled back a little, wary of getting too close. Beside him he felt Jesse doing the same. Ice was dangerous for a speedster.

“How are you even here?” Jesse demanded.

Killer Frost looked at Jesse, confusion in her glowing eyes. “Jesse . . . Jesse, it’s me,” she said. “It’s Caitlin.”

“We know who you are,” Barry reminded her. “How did you get to Earth-1?”

“No, it’s  _ me, _ ” she insisted, taking a few stumbling steps toward Barry and Jesse. She seemed unsteady on her feet. “It’s Caitlin. Your Caitlin!”

Jesse frowned. “Caitlin?”

“Nice try,” Barry interrupted, more for Jesse’s benefit than anyone. “Why should I believe you?”

“Because I surrender,” Killer Frost -- Caitlin? -- put up her hands and knelt down on the ground. “Please just get me back to STAR Labs!”

Barry stared at her. “Caitlin?”

_ Caitlin _ gave a weak smile. “Yes,” she said. “Please, help me.”

***

It took a while to get everyone on the same page.

Iris had seemed to know right away that Caitlin wasn’t her Earth-2 doppelganger. She had immediately crossed the room to hug her, only for Caitlin to practically trip trying to shy away from her. Cisco was ashamed that he’d taken the longest to convince, and Caitlin had needed to recount three specific incidents from their past for him to believe that it was really her. Then Joe turned up and he had to be brought up to speed, so it was actually quite some time before Caitlin was able to huddle up under a blanket with three space heaters going around her and tell her story.

“How did this happen?” Cisco asked gently as he brought her a steaming cup of coffee.

“Thawne,” Caitlin replied. She took the cup from Cisco and it instantly stopped steaming.

“He locked me in a freezer at Jitters,” she went on. “He was trying to turn me into a metahuman, give me  _ power. _ ”

She gestured down at herself. “I guess it worked,” she concluded, sounding equal parts hopeless and exhausted.

“So he murdered you just to give you powers?” Cisco asked.

Caitlin nodded. “We should start a club.”

She tried to take a sip of her cup of coffee, but no sooner had she brought it to her lips than ice began to creep around the lip of the mug. She pulled it away, surprised, to find that her coffee had frozen solid.

“What does he want?” Barry demanded of no one in particular.

“Us,” Caitlin said, looking at Cisco.

“Us?” Cisco repeated.

Caitlin nodded. “He . . . came to visit me, about a week ago.”

“He  _ visited _ you?” Barry demanded, suddenly at her side. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“It was at the same time Wally got hurt,” Caitlin explained. “He didn’t hurt me. I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

“Cait,” said Iris seriously, “you are  _ never _ bothering anyone by asking us to keep you safe.”

“He didn’t hurt me though,” Caitlin reminded her.

“And then he killed you,” Cisco pointed out.

Caitlin sighed. “Yeah,” she said, “I guess I should have seen it coming.”

“No one should have to see this coming,” Iris said firmly.

“I know,” Caitlin said, eyes closed, “but I should have said something.”

“If we’d known we wouldn’t have left you alone,” Cisco told her.

Caitlin gave him a weak smile.

“So, Thawne,” Barry pressed. “What did he say to you?”

Caitlin hesitated a moment. “He asked if I wanted to rely on you guys for the rest of my life,” she recounted. “He offered me power. He asked and I . . . admitted I didn’t want to be weak.”

“You’re not weak,” Cisco insisted.

“I know,” Caitlin told him, “but I felt weak. I told Thawne I didn’t want to feel that way anymore, and so he locked me in a freezer.”

“Why would he want that though?” Barry wondered. “Why would he want you to become a metahuman, with powers that are dangerous to him?”

“He wants us to be a . . . a family, I guess,” she explained. “Thawne, Cisco and I. He wants us all to have powers.”

“And here I was thinking that guy couldn’t get any crazier,” Joe piped up, and Caitlin managed a laugh.

Eventually the CCPD called Joe wondering where he and Barry had got to, and a call about a lead on a missing person forced Iris to go back to work as well. After a few tense moments of silence Jesse went to sit with Wally, leaving Cisco and Caitlin alone. At first Cisco wasn’t sure what to do with himself. Caitlin sat alone in her corner, huddled under an electric blanket and looking vacant and lost. Her eyes had an unfocused quality to them that made Cisco’s gut twist. He wanted to do something for her, but he wasn’t sure what.

At last he settled on more coffee.

“So,” said Cisco, bringing Caitlin another cup, hoping that it wouldn't freeze over again now that she was a little warmer, “do you feel any better?”

“A little,” Caitlin confessed, taking a tentative sip. It did not freeze over this time, and Cisco gave a sigh of relief.

“Good,” said Cisco nervously. “Good. That’s great actually, that’s really . . . good.”

Caitlin laughed a little through her nose. “It’s okay Cisco,” she said, “I know this isn’t good.”

“It’s not okay though,” he insisted. “What Thawne did to you is never going to be okay.”

Caitlin nodded weakly, then looked down.

Cisco lowered his head so he could catch Caitlin’s eye. “But,” he went on, “that doesn’t mean  _ you’re _ not going to be okay.”

“Do you think I’ll be okay?” Caitlin wondered, raising her head. “Ever?”

“Well,” Cisco indicated her still un-frozen mug, “you can drink coffee.”

Caitlin smiled weakly.

“I’ll help you dye your hair back,” Cisco offered.

At that though, Caitlin’s face fell. “If you can touch me again,” she corrected, looking down.

“Hey,” said Cisco, moving a little closer, but Caitlin shrank back. “It’ll be okay. You’ll get there.”

“I could really hurt you Cisco!” she insisted.

“I’m not going to let you,” he promised. “I’m not going to let you hurt anyone.”

Caitlin looked away. “I already have.”

“What?” Cisco demanded.

“Back at Central City General, there was . . . I think she was a nurse,” Caitlin said. “She touched my arm and, her hand . . .” she trailed off, her eyes wet.

“Well she was in a hospital,” Cisco pointed out. “They did wonders for Dante’s fingers when they got hit with the cold gun; I bet they fixed her right up.”

“Yeah,” said Caitlin, nodding and dashing at her eyes with one hand. Rather than looking relieved however, she turned her eyes down toward her knees again. She looked lost and afraid, and just a little hopeless.

“Tell me,” Cisco instructed.

“What?” Caitlin sniffled.

“You’re thinking something,” Cisco told her, “I wanna know what it is.”

Caitlin closed her eyes. “When I met Killer Frost,” she began slowly, “I never thought I could be like that. I thought we were so different there was no way I could ever do the things she did.”

“You couldn’t,” Cisco said firmly.

“I did though!” Caitlin protested. “I hurt that woman, and-”

“And you didn’t mean to,” Cisco interjected. “I met Killer Frost too remember? I’m telling you, you two have one thing in common and that’s that you love Ronnie. Aside from that? Nothing.”

Caitlin gave a watery smile, but she still looked ready to cry.

“I’m going to kill Thawne,” Cisco announced.

“Don’t,” Caitlin shook her head. “You’re not like him; you don’t kill in cold blood.”

“Thawne thinks having powers will turn us to the dark side,” Cisco reminded her. “Maybe I should show him what that looks like.”

“He’s wrong,” Caitlin insisted. “You’re not Reverb and I’m not Killer Frost. We’re different; you’re Vibe and I’m . . .”

She trailed off, frowning in thought.

“Snow Angel,” Cisco finished for her.

Caitlin’s face broke out into a real, genuine smile. “Snow Angel.”

***

By the time Cisco was prepared to leave Caitlin on her own, she was feeling a lot better. Cisco had that effect on people, she supposed. He just had a way of making you feel better about life.

Caitlin asked him for some time alone to think, so he called Jesse out of Wally’s room and the two of them disappeared together. Once she was alone she stood up and stepped carefully outside her ring of space heaters. She didn’t immediately start leaving trails of frost on the floor, so she took a few experimental steps until the cord on the electric blanket she still had wrapped around her pulled taut. She unplugged it, then draped the blanket over a chair and went to stand in the middle of the room.

No frost crept out from around her feet. The lights didn’t get covered in ice. She wasn’t even that cold.

Caitlin grinned. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

She still wasn’t sure she was comfortable with people touching her though. The screams of the woman in the hospital still echoed in her ears, and she couldn’t imagine doing that to Cisco or Iris. She would probably have to start by touching the speedsters; they would heal fastest if something went wrong. She would, of course, master touching inanimate objects first, but-

She had been so lost in thought that when the machine’s in Wally’s room suddenly began beeping loudly it startled her so much that she actually yelped as she whirled around. Immediately Caitlin went to the sickroom to check on Wally, but no sooner had she crossed the threshold than the episode ended and Wally stabilized again.

“If you can pull yourself out of it that fast,” Caitlin addressed the sleeping Wally, “you should be awake in no time.”

Caitlin busied herself checking over the machines to make sure nothing serious had happened in her absence. She kept her hands carefully to herself, not wishing to damage the equipment keeping Wally stable, but as best she could she ascertained that the time between now and her last check had been uneventful. Once she finished her check she sighed in relief. At least something was going right.

Once she was done though Caitlin wasn’t sure what to do with herself. She stood in the middle of the room, wondering what to do. A shiver ran down her spine, and she rubbed at her arms. Was it cold in here?

She went to the thermostat, but it read seventy-two degrees.

_ Oh no, _ thought Caitlin,  _ it’s happening again! _

She turned, planning to run back to her well-heated corner when suddenly Wally’s heart monitor began beeping again. Reflexively she ran to it, but caught herself before she could put her hands on Wally’s chest. She couldn’t touch him! Caitlin shivered, her skin crawling with the need for heat, but she couldn’t leave Wally in distress. She wanted to place her hands on his chest, to start compressions. His chest would be warm.

Suddenly heat prickled Caitlin’s palms and he air in front of her exploded in snow. She shrieked and stumbled back a step as the white powder settled over Wally. The heart monitor stopped beeping, but Wally shivered reflexively as he was dusted in glittering snowflakes.

Caitlin backed away from the bed. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t control her powers, this impossible, inhuman cold inside her. She was only spreading it, spreading it to everything she touched, and now even to things she didn’t touch. She couldn’t help Wally like this; she couldn’t help anyone!

With a small sob, Caitlin ran from the room.

***

“Caitlin?” called Iris as she made her way back into the cortex.

The lead had been a bust unfortunately, so Iris had hurried back to STAR Labs. She didn’t like the idea of leaving Caitlin alone, even with Cisco and Jesse. She was going through a difficult time; the more friends she had around her the better, and since Barry and her father couldn’t be there Iris was determined that she would be present as much as possible.

“Caitlin?” she repeated, looking around the empty room. The corner where Cisco had set up the space heaters was empty, the electric blanket lying discarded over a chair.

Caitlin was nowhere to be seen.

Now more than a little worried, Iris went to the door of Wally’s hospital room, wondering if Caitlin was tending to him. She poked her head around the door, hoping to see a mess of white hair, but there were no unnaturally blue eyes inside.

There were, however, a pair of brown eyes.

“Wally!” Iris yelled, running to the bed as Wally blinked his eyes open.

“Iris?” he asked, frowning up at her. “What are you doing here? What happened?”

“I’m here because you’re here,” Iris told him firmly, pulling up the empty chair and sitting down so she could clasp Wally’s hand. “You were struck by lightning; we think it might have been Weather Wizard. You’re safe though, we’re in STAR Labs.”

“Great,” Wally grumbled, clearly unimpressed by her fawning. He hated when she got all big sister on him. He looked down at himself and frowned.

“What am I covered in?” Wally demanded.

Iris tore her attention away from her baby brother to examine the covers pulled over him. They were slightly damp, with a fine dusting of white powder over them. She touched it lightly, to find it cold. Snow.

“Oh no,” Iris said, realization making her heartbeat pick up. “Caitlin!”

“What about Caitlin?” Wally asked, suddenly concerned.

“Caitlin got ice powers from Thawne,” Iris filled him in. “I think she might have done this.”

“Where is she?” Wally demanded, looking around.

Iris glanced toward the door. “I don’t know.”

***

“I should never have left her alone!” Cisco shouted, pacing back and forth across the cortex.

“She wanted to be left alone,” Jesse commiserated. She was sitting in a chair, curled in on herself and looking absolutely miserable.

Iris made a frustrated noise and pulled her phone away from her ear. “Barry’s still not answering!” she huffed, glaring at her phone as though it was to blame.

“Try Joe,” Cisco suggested.

“His phone’s off,” Iris told him.

“He’s probably in a meeting with Captain Singh,” Wally added. “Who knows how long it could go on.”

“Screw Barry,” Cisco snapped, “we need to find Caitlin.”

“You could try to get a vibe,” Iris suggested. She picked up the broken piece of the time sphere, which had been haphazardly discarded on a nearby table, and offered it to him.

“She’s not with Thawne though,” Cisco shook his head.

“She wasn’t with Thawne last time,” Iris pointed out. “You still found her.”

“Why though?” Jesse frowned. “Why did something that mattered to Thawne give you a vibe on Caitlin?”

“Maybe he was watching her?” Cisco speculated. “I saw what he was seeing?”

“Or what he wanted you to see,” Iris suggested. “He seems to know your powers better than we do.”

“Well let’s hope he’s still watching,” Jesse said, nodding at the piece of the time sphere. “Cisco?”

Cisco sighed, then reached out a took the fragment from Iris.

Immediately his world went blue, the air stolen from his lungs as he was transported to another place and time. He was standing near the edge of a rooftop, and he could see that he was high above the city. The sun was setting, staining the skylight a strange lilac color through the blue of the vibe. Standing by the edge, watching the sunset, was Caitlin. Her white hair swayed in the slight breeze, and she was crying.

Cisco sucked in air as the vibe ended, dumping him back in the cortex with Jesse, Iris and Wally.

“What happened?” Wally asked eagerly. “What did you see?”

“Caitlin,” said Cisco, feeling rather than hearing his own voice shake. “We need to find her,  _ now _ .”

“Where was she?” Iris asked, frowning in concern.

“On a rooftop,” Cisco told her grimly. “She was standing . . . really close to the edge.”

“I’ll find her,” Jesse said, and before anyone could reply she was off like a shot, papers blowing in all directions in the wind from her departure.

“I’ll help,” Wally insisted, turning toward the door, “I’ll get my-”

Suddenly there was another rush of wind, and in a blur of lightning Wally was gone.

Cisco and Iris stared at the place where Wally had just been standing, then at each other.

“Did he just-” Iris began, but at that moment Wally reappeared.

“I was gonna say car,” he said, grinning, “but this is way cooler.”

***

It was Wally who found Caitlin in the end. She was just emerging out onto the roof of an impressively tall building -- ironically a Rathaway Industries construction -- but Wally hadn’t approached her right away. Instead he zipped back to STAR Labs to pick up Cisco, and then the two of them returned to the rooftop where Caitlin now stood close to the edge.

“Caitlin!” Cisco called, standing a few feet back. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her.

Caitlin turned, her luminous blue eyes confused. “Cisco?” she asked, but then she caught sight of Wally.

“You’re awake!” she said brightly, then frowned. “It wasn’t the snow was it?”

“I think it might have been the snow,” Wally told her.

“See,” Cisco smiled encouragingly. “You can do good things with your powers. It’s all good, so why don’t you-”

“Cisco,” Caitlin interrupted. “I’m not going to jump.”

Cisco blinked, perplexed. “You’re not?”

“No,” she said, giggling a little. “Ronnie and I used to come up here to watch the sunset. I just wanted to clear my head is all.”

“Oh man,” Cisco visibly deflated, body going limp with relief. “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that.”

“Did you really think I was going to jump?” Caitlin asked. “I thought you knew me better than that Cisco.”

Cisco went a little red. “Well,” he hedged, “these are some pretty extreme circumstances.”

“I’m fine,” Caitlin said, stepping away from the edge to come toward Cisco. “Well, not fine, but I’m not ready to give up just yet.”

“Good,” Cisco said firmly, “because I’m not giving up either. I will figure out a way to dampen your powers. I’ll find a way to make you able to touch people again.”

“I’ll help,” Wally volunteered. “I know a thing or two.”

Caitlin smiled. “I know you guys will do great.”

Cisco smiled back, then suddenly his eyes went wide. Wally and Caitlin looked at him curiously, but he brushed past Caitlin to move toward the edge, staring out at the skyline.

“Cisco?” Caitlin asked nervously. “What’s-”

“The cityscape,” Cisco breathed, then turned back to Caitlin and Wally. “The cityscape!”

“What about it?” Wally asked skeptically.

“It’s the same one from my vibe!” Cisco said excitedly.

“Well, yeah,” Wally replied, perplexed. He had no clue what Cisco was so excited about.

“Not that vibe,” Cisco waved him off, “the other vibe. The one about Killer Frost and Deathstorm getting cozy!”

“So what about it?” Caitlin wanted to know.

“It wasn’t Earth-2!” Cisco said excitedly. “It was Earth-1! Earth-2 has a skyrail, we don’t!”

“I’m not following you,” Caitlin shook her head, looking just as confused as Wally felt.

Cisco rolled his eyes. “Killer Frost never came to Earth-1,” Cisco explained, “but I had a vibe of her, very clearly here in our version of Central City.”

“How is that possible?” Caitlin asked.

“Because it wasn’t Killer Frost!” Cisco exclaimed. “It was you, Snow Angel!”

“And if it was you in the vibe,” Wally pointed at Caitlin, realization dawning, “then the person you were cuddling had to have been-”

“Ronnie!” Caitlin’s eyes went wide. “Do you think he could still be alive?”

“There’s only place he could be,” Cisco told her. “Looks like we’re heading back to Earth-2.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not that anyone's still reading this, but sorry for the late post. life got busy, and i don't foresee it getting any less busy, so it'll be a while until the next one too. this one's a bit shorter than the others as well, and that's also the start of a trend. not that there's anyone still here to care. why am i still writing this story?


	11. Return to Earth-2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i liiiiiiive! and i'm not just writing temeraire fanfic, i'm actually trying to finish this thing! i'm trying, i'm *strains* trying!

“Give me one good reason why I can’t go,” Barry demanded, standing in the middle of Cisco’s workroom with arms folded.

Cisco was standing at his worktable, sifting through the supplies he had dumped there to decide which ones went where in his bag for their trip to Earth-2. He picked up a tool, looked at his bag, then shook his head and put it down.

“You’re the Flash,” he said simply, picking up another tool and placing it in the bag this time. Then he thought better of it and took it out, replacing it with a bundle of clothes.

“All the more reason I should come!” Barry protested.

“All the more reason you should  _ stay _ and protect the city while we’re gone,” Cisco corrected.

“Okay, give me two good reasons,” Barry said sulkily. “How are you going to get through the breach without me?”

“I can open them wide enough for normal people to pass through at normal speed now,” Cisco reminded him. “Besides, Jesse and Wally are going.”

“Both of them?” Barry wanted to know. “Don’t you think one is enough?”

Cisco sighed, pausing in his packing to look at Barry. “Wally stands the best chance of getting through to Jessica, who we’re going to need to help find Ronnie,” he said. “Jesse won’t let me go to Earth-2 without her. Trust me, both of them need to come.”

“And Caitlin needs to come because Ronnie will want to see her,” Barry conceded, knowing perfectly well there was no arguing that one. This was Caitlin’s fight, she needed to be there.

Cisco nodded, then resumed packing his bag.

“Why do you need to go then?” Barry asked.

“Someone needs to show them around,” Cisco shrugged.

“I can do that!” Barry insisted. “I went there too you know.”

“Because if you go and I stay, who’s going to protect Central City?” Cisco wondered.

“Jesse?” Barry guessed.

“Who also doesn’t want to let Hartley go by himself,” Cisco said.

“Hartley’s going?” Barry asked. “Since when?”

“Since Jesse offered,” Cisco informed him. “We can’t tell him he can’t go now, he took off work and everything.”

“Oh, well if he took off work,” Barry said sarcastically.

“Besides, we need someone to help me control Jesse if Jessica starts talking smack,” Cisco concluded. “Sorry dude, you’re stuck holding the fort.”

“Hey Cisco,” Iris poked her head into the workroom, “was the weather on Earth-2 the same as the weather here?”

“To the degree,” Cisco told her.

“Wait!” Barry interjected as Iris pulled her head back around the doorframe. “Iris gets to go and I don’t? What’s the logic for that!”

“She wanted to see Earth-2,” Cisco explained, as if this were a perfectly logical explanation.

“No,” Barry gesticulated with one finger, “no, there is no reason for Iris to go while I stay.”

Cisco raised an eyebrow. “Do you wanna tell her she can’t go?” he asked skeptically.

Barry considered that for a moment, then closed his mouth and put down his finger.

***

Jesse hoisted her bag over her shoulder and went to stand by the place where the breach would shortly be. It was closed, for now, but Cisco had been getting better at opening and closing it to the point that now anyone could pass through, even people without superspeed. Speed still made the trip easier though, so Jesse took hold of Hartley and Cisco, Wally taking hold of Iris and Caitlin beside her. Caitlin pushed her freshly dyed hair off her shoulders and stared straight ahead, looking nervous. She was wearing two power-dampening bracelets, which Cisco had just finished that morning, keeping her ice powers in check.

Cisco extended a hand, and from his outstretched fist shot a jet of blue light. It hit the place where the breach had been and stopped, swirling around and around itself like glowing water until it had formed an upright puddle in midair. It swayed and pulsed, shining brightly from within, and when Cisco withdrew his hand it stayed there, open and stable.

“Be careful,” Joe instructed, standing back with eyes trained on his two children. Both of them were going, and he’d already expressed his displeasure over that.

“Don’t worry Dad,” Wally grinned, “if we don’t make it back you’ll still have Barry.”

Barry, who was still pouting about being left behind, opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment Wally turned to Jesse and winked, and the two of them sped forward.

Going through a breach was like running through cold water. It shocked her, lit up her nerves, and she felt as though she were running and running and not getting anywhere. For a moment she panicked, wondering if they might get stuck between dimensions, but as quickly as it came it was over and she was standing in a room almost identical to the one she had just left.

She gasped, sucking in air that felt stagnant and stale, and beside her she heard the others doing the same. Only Cisco looked unaffected.

“You could have warned me it would be like that,” she choked.

“Where would be the fun in that?” Cisco wondered.

It was a bit surreal, walking the halls of a STAR Labs nearly identical to the one that they had just left. There were just enough minute differences to make it clear it wasn’t the same building, and the color of the light was ever so slightly off, but it could not have been any other building besides STAR Labs. They made their way up from the basement in silence, as though afraid to disturb the strangeness of the place.

Another thing that made it eerily similar to the STAR Labs they had just left was that it was completely deserted. There were no people, no sounds of footfalls, no voices on the intercom. No one was there to greet them or question them. They were completely alone.

“Isn’t this supposed to be a functioning lab?” Jesse asked as they made their way out onto the main floor.

“It is,” Cisco agreed. “It was the last time I came.”

“Miss Wells!” called a voice from across the room, making all of them jump. From the other side of the entrance hall came a figure, which eventually resolved itself into Henry Hewitt as he came sprinting toward them.

“Miss Wells,” he repeated, panting slightly. “It’s so good to see you!”

“Um,” said Jesse, perplexed. “Thank you?”

Hewitt caught his breath, then peered at her closely. “Did you change your hair?”

“Uh, yes,” said Jesse decisively. “I needed a change after . . . everything.”

“I understand completely,” he nodded vigorously up and down. “It suits you very well.”

Clearly he had mistaken her for her Earth-2 doppelganger, but there was no point in disabusing him of the idea when it would mean explaining the entire multiverse theory. Better to let him simply think she was Jessica.

“So,” said Jesse, trying to sound as self-important as possible, “where is everyone?”

Hewitt’s face crumpled, and his eyes took on an apologetic quality.

“There’s been . . . a few more resignations, Miss Wells,” said Hewitt, bowing his head. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jesse said automatically, then winced when he looked surprised. Not very Jessica-like, refusing to place blame.

Hewitt seemed to notice the gaggle of people clustered around Jesse for the first time. His eyes immediately went to Iris.

“Detective West-Allen,” he said, straightening, “are we in some kind of trouble?”

“No,” said Iris calmly, and Jesse was surprised by how easily she slid into character as she went on. “I just came to ask for Miss Wells’ assistance with an official matter, nothing to worry about.”

“I’m glad,” said Hewitt, looking relieved. “So, who are the rest-”

“Right,” said Jesse more sharply, and immediately Hewitt snapped to attention, his full focus back on her. “I’m just heading to my father’s office, to . . .”

She trailed off, grasping for what they were doing there.

Hewitt, however, looked at her with softening eyes. “Miss Wells,” he said gently, “you really should start thinking of it as your office. You are the new head of STAR Labs, after all.”

“I am?” Jesse asked blankly.

“You are,” Cisco hissed into her ear.

“I am!” said Jesse brightly, “I mean, of course I am. It’s just, uh, hard, to-”

“I understand,” Hewitt smiled sympathetically. “We all miss Dr. Wells.”

He looked to the side, a shadow passing over his face.

“Well, those of us who are still here do.”

Jesse nodded sympathetically, and Hewitt gave her a sad little smile. Then he skirted the group and left them standing in the entrance hall.

“What was that about?” Cisco wanted to know, looking after Hewitt curiously.

“I think we need to talk to Jessica,” Jesse decided. “Think she’s upstairs?”

“If she’s the new head of STAR Labs she’ll probably be in her office this time of day,” Hartley speculated.

The rest of the group concurred, so they made their way to the stairs. There were too many of them to fit in an elevator and none of them liked the idea of being separated, so they filed up the emergency stairway toward the upper floor, where Dr. Wells -- or rather, Jesse Wells -- occupied the large glass-walled office.

“Do you think she’ll see us?” Jesse wondered.

“She has to,” Wally replied confidently, “she’s our only way to find Ronnie.”

Perhaps it was the surety in his voice, but once they were upstairs the group elected Wally to enter the office first. They could see through the glass walls that Jessica was indeed inside, head bent over her desk as she examined a schematic, and the door was open.

“Knock knock,” Wally said nervously, rapping his knuckles on the doorframe.

Jessica jumped, looking up in alarm at the sound of Wally’s voice. “Wally!” she said, shocked, then her eyes slid over the rest of the group. She stood up, an expression of irritation spreading over her face.

“What are you all doing here?” she demanded.

“We need your help,” Wally said gravely.

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. “Not interested,” she said sharply, sitting down.

“We’re not asking a lot,” Cisco piped up, coming to stand beside Wally, “we just need to borrow STAR Labs’ satellite to scan for-”

“You wouldn’t help my father and I when we needed you,” Jessica shot back. “Why should I help you now?”

“We did help you,” Jesse said venomously, “you just-”

“ _ That _ ,” said Cisco firmly, “is not important. All we need to do is scan for a heat signature, we’ll be out of your hair in a few hours tops.”

“A man’s life depends on it,” Caitlin chimed in from her position sheltering behind Cisco. This was true;  _ if _ Ronnie had lasted this long then it was a miracle, and he couldn’t have much more time left before he needed to merge again. Or at least some medical treatment.

“I couldn’t if I wanted to,” Jessica shrugged. “The satellite is in use currently, by Mercury Labs.”

“You  _ rented out _ the satellite?” Cisco asked incredulously.

“No one was using it,” Jessica pointed out.

“No one at all?” Cisco repeated.

“In case you hadn’t noticed,” Jessica swept her arms grandly, “we’re a little short staffed.”

“Why is that?” Iris asked curiously. “I thought STAR Labs was a fully functioning research facility the last time Cisco and Barry came here.”

Jessica hesitated, then turned away. “We’ve been having some public relations difficulties recently.”

“What she means,” said a voice from down the hall, making all of them turn, “is that our reputation is in tatters since people found out that the Particle Accelerator created the metahumans.”

The man who had spoken held out his hand to Iris. “Hartley Rathaway, at your service Detective West-Allen.”

Jesse stared at him. It was undoubtedly Hartley, but he was dressed in a most un-Hartley-ish fashion. He wore a button-down work shirt, that much was reasonable, but no vest or blazer to cover it, and it was untucked from his denim jeans. He also wasn’t wearing his glasses, and his hair, far from neatly combed, was floppy and fell in his eyes. He smiled brightly at the gaggle of strangers as though genuinely pleased to see them, and the tone of his voice was one that Jesse hadn’t heard outside of when he was alone with her and Cisco.

“Don’t worry,” Iris said smoothly, shaking his hand with a sly smile on her face, “I know who you are.”

The other Hartley blinked, looking perplexed, but when Iris glanced sideways at Earth-1 Hartley suddenly his mouth dropped open.

“You’re-” he said, pointing dumbly at Hartley. “You’re-”

“He’s your doppelganger,” Jessica said testily. “From the other universe. I explained all this to you didn’t I?”

“I know,” said Other Hartley, “but what is he doing  _ here _ ?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Hartley replied, looking his counterpart up and down critically. “I never pegged us for the type to work for some rich brat who doesn’t even have a master’s degree. Are those dark wash jeans?”

Jessica rolled her eyes and threw up her hands. “I guess this means you’d all better come inside!”

Earth-2 Hartley immediately pushed through the crowd to go and stand beside Jessica’s desk. Jessica kept it as a barrier between herself and the Earth-1 residents, all of whom barely fit inside the office. Jesse was suddenly aware just how many people they had brought with them, and began wondering if maybe they shouldn’t have included Hartley and Iris in their little expedition.

Cisco spoke first. “What’s been going on here since we left? Last time we were here there were people everywhere, now it’s a ghost lab. Where is everyone?”

“Mr. Rathaway told you,” Jessica said curtly. “We’ve been having some PR problems and there have been resignations.”

“Did people just now realize that the Particle Accelerator is a metahuman generator?” Cisco pressed. “Because it seems like that would be pretty obvious.”

Jessica looked down. “With the metahuman crisis getting worse and the Flash . . . taking his absence, people started looking for someone to blame. STAR Labs was an easy target.”

“You mean an appropriate target,” Hartley corrected.

“Oh what do you know?” snapped Other Hartley.

“I guess that means your hearing wasn’t damaged by the Accelerator,” Hartley said disdainfully, and Other Hartley looked taken aback.

“Anyway,” Jessica interrupted, “that was why we started experimenting on prisoners. We needed a solution to the crisis to restore our reputation.”

“So that’s why you were so desperate to find out about Cisco’s powers,” Jesse realized. “You were trying to figure out a way to take them!”

“We were trying to cure him,” Jessica corrected.

“I don’t need a cure!” Cisco insisted.

“Some people do though,” Other Hartley cut in. “Some people misuse their powers, and others are hurt by them. Dr. Wells was just trying to help.”

Jesse opened her mouth to retort, but suddenly Caitlin touched her on the arm. Jesse turned to look at her, receiving a sad, slightly pleading smile, and swallowed her response. They’d come here for a reason, and arguing was getting them nowhere.

“If you want to help, then help us now,” she said instead. “Let us use the satellite, just for a few hours.”

“What do you need it for?” Other Hartley asked skeptically.

“To scan for a heat signature,” Cisco told him. “One of our friends, who we thought was dead, may still be alive here.”

“Why does he have a unique heat signature?” Other Hartley wondered.

“Because he has fire powers, obviously,” Hartley rolled his eyes. “I thought his doppelganger in this world had the same abilities.”

Other Hartley blinked at him. “You want to search for your world’s  _ Deathstorm? _ ”

“On our Earth he’s called Firestorm,” Caitlin said gently, “and he’s not the person you think he is.”

“It doesn’t matter who or what this guy is,” Jessica snapped. “You’re not getting use of the satellite, not for a few hours, not for a few  _ minute _ , not ever!”

“You can’t just-” Hartley began, but Jessica cut him off.

“I can,” she said harshly, “I will, I just did. Now get out of my office!”

***

“Well that was a bust,” Cisco sighed once the group had been ejected from Jessica’s office.

“What are we going to do now?” Wally wondered.

“What else can we do?” Cisco replied. “We have no way to track Ronnie, the only other option is canvassing the city on foot and hoping we run into him.”

“We can’t just give up,” Caitlin protested.

“We’re not going to,” Iris assured her. She turned to the rest of the group, placing herself at the front so all of them were looking at her. “We’re going to find Ronnie, we just have to get creative.”

Iris turned to Cisco. “My doppelganger is a cop, right? On the metahuman task force?” she asked. At Cisco’s nod she went on. “Then she’ll know if there have been any sightings of Deathstorm since Zoom killed him.”

“You wanna go ask Detective West-Allen if she’ll help us find Ronnie?” Cisco said skeptically. “Because I will tell you right now, we are not her favorite people in the multiverse.”

“You, maybe,” Iris replied, “but she’s never met me. If I tell her why we’re here, she might be willing to help us.”

“Not to mention we’ll be getting a metahuman off her hands,” Hartley replied.

“It could work,” Cisco admitted. “I’ll go with you. Of the people from Earth-1 she’s met I think she probably hates me the least.”

“What did Barry do to her?” Iris wanted to know.

“Let’s just say this was before you two were dating and Barry was kinda . . . desperate,” Cisco said resignedly. “He creeped on her while dressed as her Barry. It was kinda weird actually.”

“I’m gonna have a talk with him when we get home,” Iris said with a frown. “For now, let’s go.”

“What are the rest of us doing?” Hartley piped up. “Just sitting around waiting?”

“You and Jesse go talk to Earth-2 Hartley,” Iris instructed. “Wally, you go talk to Jessica.”

“Why am I talking to her?” Wally demanded.

“Because if there’s one of us that she likes, it’s you,” Iris said, putting a hand on Wally’s shoulder.

Wally nodded.

“So,” said Iris, turning to Cisco, “let’s see if Detective West-Allen knows anything useful.”

***

Hartley could fully understand why they’d chosen him to talk to his Earth-2 doppelganger. No one knew him better than he knew himself, after all, and the only person who might have was coming with him. Still, there was something off about this other Hartley that rubbed the Earth-1 version the wrong way. He seemed to have less shame, less decency, and while Hartley was no stranger to a lack of those things it was different watching it from the other side.

Hartley hated it.

Still he and Jesse dutifully waited out in the hallway for Other Hartley to come out, and once he was around the corner and out of sight of Jessica’s office they made their presence known.

“Jesus!” spluttered Other Hartley when Jesse cleared her throat. “What, were you lying in wait for me?”

“Kind of,” Jesse admitted, looking at Other Hartley with a blank expression.

Other Hartley stared at her, then turned his attention to his counterpart. “To what do I owe the heart attack?”

Hartley wracked his brains for a neutral topic that wouldn’t give away their motive just yet. “I was curious,” he said, quite truthfully. He was exceedingly curious about his doppelganger, about this version of himself from another universe. He didn’t think that he’d have stayed at STAR Labs after it had lost its reputation, even if he hadn’t been fired beforehand. Well, he probably would have stayed if Wells had asked him to, but this Hartley had no special relationship with Dr. Wells. What had made him stay?

Finally he settled on a question. “Why weren’t you affected by the Accelerator?”

“Why were you?” Other Hartley countered.

“I suffered head trauma when STAR Labs exploded,” Hartley shrugged. “I didn’t get any powers, but my hearing was severely damaged. Not everyone was so lucky.”

“Well this STAR Labs didn’t explode, obviously,” Other Hartley said defensively. “I was nowhere near it when it  _ supposedly _ expelled dark matter radiation, so I wasn’t exposed.”

Again Hartley felt a subtle sense of wrongness coming off his counterpart. There was something not quite right about what he’d said, something not quite truthful, and Hartley opened his mouth to challenge the statement when Jesse elbowed him in the ribs.

“Hartley,” she hissed, glaring at him admonishingly, but Other Hartley seemed to think she was speaking to him.

“It’s Hart actually,” he said with an overly friendly smile. “Everyone calls me Hart, even Miss Wells.”

Hart pointed to Jesse. “So I guess you’re not the head of STAR Labs on your Earth?”

“No,” Jesse shook her head, “there is no STAR Labs anymore on my Earth. Now we just use it as a superhero headquarters for Team Flash.”

“Miss Wells told me a little bit about that,” Hart told her. He pointed between Jesse and Hartley. “She told me you two were close.”

“She did?” asked Jesse, sounding perplexed.

“Yeah,” Hart rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “It’s, uh, why she hired me, actually.”

“Wait,” said Hartley, “you mean she hired you  _ after _ she got back from our world?”

“Well, yeah,” Hart replied. It was his turn to look perplexed. “She tracked me down and offered me a job.”

“And you came to work for her?” Jesse questioned. “After everything?”

“There, uh, aren’t a lot of positions for a concert flutist in Central City these days,” Hartley confessed. “She offered me a position as her assistant, and I took it. I needed the money.”

“You mean you’re not a scientist?” Hartley realized with an unpleasant jolt. An  _ assistant _ ?

“You are?” Hart asked, just as surprised.

Jesse leaned one arm on Hartley’s shoulder. “Mercury Labs lead engineer,” she said proudly.

“Wow,” Hart stared wide-eyed at his counterpart. “We’ve had very different lives, haven’t we?”

“Very different,” Hartley concurred.

“So, wait,” Jesse interrupted, “Jessica tracked you down when she got back to this Earth, because me and Hartley were close?”

Hart looked down. “I think she was lonely,” he told them. “What with her dad and . . . everything, she doesn’t have a lot of people to talk to. I’ve been trying to . . . fill the void, I guess, but we don’t have a lot in common.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Jesse said softly. “That’s a void no one can fill.”

Hart nodded. “I still wish I could do more though,” he said.

“Maybe you can help us,” Jesse offered. “We need her help to find a metahuman from our world that fell through into this Earth. I’m sure he’s been causing trouble here, or at least scaring people, so if you help us find him we can get him home and out of your way.”

“How will that help Miss Wells?” Hart wanted to know.

“We’ll give her credit,” Jesse offered. “We’ll tell Detective West-Allen that it was all her doing, that she was the one who got a dangerous meta off the streets. That’s sure to generate some positive press.”

Hart still looked skeptical.

“We’re not asking a lot,” Jesse said pleadingly. “We just need you to talk to her.”

Hart sighed. “Ok,” he said, “I’ll do it.”

***

Iris West-Allen was having a particularly trying day. Her husband was sick in bed, which was distressing in itself, but without him the forensics lab had slowed to a crawl and she needed the evidence from her latest case processed  _ now. _ Not for the first time she contemplated calling him to see if he felt any better, but she knew that if he thought she needed him then the answer would be “yes” whether it was true or not. She did not need Barry sick for any longer than necessary.

“Detective West-Allen?” called one of the beat cops as he approached her desk. “There’s someone here to see you.”

Iris looked up, expecting to see the widow from her latest case. Instead she was greeted by the sight of Cisco Ramon, walking toward her with obvious trepidation. She fought down the momentary surge of panic at seeing the face of Reverb, but Reverb was dead, and the man’s clothes immediately identified him as the  _ other _ Cisco Ramon.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed once he was close enough.

“Come outside with me,” he said, rather than giving an explanation. “There’s someone who wants to meet you.”

***

Iris stood in the alley, waiting for Cisco to return with her doppelganger. She was, in truth, a little nervous, but she more curious than anything. She’d always wanted to be a police detective, even when she’d been a child, but her father would never hear of it. What kind of person would she have been like, if she’d been allowed to go into the academy like she wanted?

After what felt like an eternity of waiting the side door of the building opened and out stepped Cisco and -- it was a bit of a shock, even though she’d been expecting it -- Iris.

The two Irises stared at each other for a long moment. The Earth-2 version, Iris noted, was smartly dressed, clearly in uniform with her hair up in a tight bun at the back of her head. She had hard eyes, sharp like her father’s, and she looked Earth-1 Iris up and down with a critical expression.

Iris held out a hand to her counterpart. “Iris West,” she introduced herself, “reporter for Central City Picture News.”

“Detective Iris West-Allen,” the other Iris replied, taking her hand after a moment’s hesitation. “Central City Police Department.”

“Okay, ground rules,” Cisco said immediately. “You-” he pointed to Earth-1 Iris, “-are Iris. You-” he pointed to Earth-2 Iris, “-are Detective West-Allen. Got it?”

“Fair enough,” said Detective West-Allen.

“We need your help,” said Iris seriously. “We’re tracking a metahuman and we need to know if and where he’s been sighted.”

“A meta from your world?” Detective West-Allen glanced at Cisco.

“We think he fell through the breach,” Cisco explained. “He’s a good guy, trust me, but he might be causing trouble just because his powers are unstable.”

“What are his powers?” Detective West-Allen wanted to know.

Cisco glanced at Iris nervously. “He can shoot fire out of his hands.”

_ “Deathstorm _ ?” asked Detective West-Allen incredulously.

“Firestorm, actually,” Iris corrected, her tone hard. “And his real name is Ronnie.”

Detective West-Allen sighed, looking extremely put-upon. “There have been some sightings,” she admitted, “since he died. Mostly we’ve been dismissing them, but it might have been your . . . friend.”

“Where was he?” Cisco asked eagerly.

The detective hesitated a moment, looking back and forth between Cisco and Iris. Then she sighed and went to the door to hold it open for the two of them.

“Come inside,” she invited. “If anyone asks you’re my sister, got it?”

The three of them filed in and headed straight for the desk marked West-Allen. No one asked Iris who she was, but she did receive a few odd looks as she walked behind her doppelganger. Detective West-Allen cut through the crowd like a knife, everyone parting to admit her and by extension Cisco and Iris. Cisco took up position behind the detective as she sat down at her computer and began pulling up files, and Iris leaned against the desk.

“So,” asked Iris after a moment’s awkward silence, “where’s Barry?”

“Home sick,” said Detective West-Allen without looking up.

Iris huffed out a laugh through her nose. “Sounds like Barry,” she said. “He’s always such a baby when he has a cold.”

At this Detective West-Allen glanced up at Iris, an unreadable expression on her face. “I guess some things never change,” she said carefully.

“I was kind of looking forward to meeting him,” Iris confessed. “From what my Barry told me he’s a bit . . . different.”

“He’s a lot more considerate, I’ll tell you that much,” Detective West-Allen said. “Did your Barry tell you he let me kiss him? Even knowing I was married to my husband?”

“He left that out, actually,” Iris said, an unpleasant feeling in her gut.  _ Really Barry? _

Detective West-Allen scoffed. “Well, you haven’t married him, so maybe you do have taste.”

“I haven’t,” Iris admitted, “but he is my boyfriend. He can be a bit selfish, but he is the Flash and he is a good person.”

“He fought Zoom,” Detective West-Allen said, “I’ll give him that.”

Iris opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly Detective West-Allen leaned in toward her computer.

“I think I’ve found what you’re looking for,” she said.

***

Wally stood outside Jessica’s office door, watching her examine a schematic with a single minded focus that reminded him of Cisco. It also reminded him of his own Jesse, but he doubted she’d appreciate the comparison. He doubted either of them would.

With a sigh he knocked, but when Jessica looked up at him she frowned.

“What do you want?” Jessica snapped, glaring.

Wally held up his hands in a gesture of submission. “Hey,” he said, “I just wanted to talk.”

“About getting the satellite for your friends,” Jessica finished for him. “I told you, it’s not happening.”

“You’re my friend too,” Wally pointed out. “Or at least you used to be.”

Jessica didn’t answer, opting instead to go back to her schematic.

“We were friends,” Wally pressed. “I know we were. Why are you acting like this?”

“I’m not acting in any special way,” Jessica protested weakly.

“Yes you are,” Wally told her. “You’re acting like you don’t care. I know you do, so just-”

“What exactly do you think you know about me, West?” Jessica said waspishly, straightening to look Wally in the eye.

Wally hesitated, wondering how best to phrase it. “I know that you’re a good person,” he said. “I know that you’re kind, and you’re smart, and you care about people.”

He sighed. “At least I know you cared about me.”

Jessica sniffed, but didn’t respond.

“Why didn’t you stay?” Wally wanted to know. “Until I woke up? Why’d you just take off like that?”

“It’s none of your business,” Jessica said, as though on a reflex.

“I think it is,” Wally said, stepping forward until only the desk separated him from Jessica. “I think we were pretty close there for a while, and I have a right to know why you-”

“Because you’re not human!” Jessica exploded, slamming her hands down on the table. “Because you’re a metahuman, you have powers, you’re impossible! You’re a  _ thing _ just like all the others, and I don’t want anything to do with you!”

Wally took a startled step back. Of all the things he’d been expecting her to say, none of them had been that. She didn’t sound like the Jessica he knew at all. She sounded like . . .

“Is that coming from you?” he wondered. “Or your dad?”

Jessica stared at him. She blinked rapidly, as though trying to clear her vision, and Wally could see that her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. He walked slowly around the desk, careful not to startled her, and when he stood before her he drew her gently into his arms. She didn’t reciprocate, but she didn’t resist either, limply allowing him to hold her.

“I just miss him so much,” Jessica whispered into Wally’s shirt.

“I know,” Wally said. “I miss my mom. But I know that there were both good and bad things about her, and I don’t miss the bad things like I miss the good ones.”

He stroked her hair gently, and she laid her cheek against his chest.

“Perpetuating the worst parts of your dad isn’t the way to honor him,” Wally said simply.

Jessica sighed, then pulled away wiping at her eyes. After a moment she composed herself, then looked Wally in the eye with an expression of determination.

“Mercury Labs really does have the satellite,” Jessica said, in a small voice.

“But we can get it back for a few minutes,” said a voice from the door. Wally and Jesse whirled around, to see Hartley standing in the doorway. He gave Jessica a pointed look.

“I can’t sweep the whole city,” she hedged.

“You don’t have to,” said another voice, and suddenly Cisco turned the corner with Iris in tow.

“What do you mean?” Jessica demanded sharply, wiping her eyes hurriedly.

“I mean we have a pretty narrow list of places where Ronnie might be,” Cisco said, holding up a file demonstratively.

“How’d you get that?” Wally wanted to know.

“A little help from Detective West-Allen,” Iris said smugly. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

***

“You’re sure this is the place?” Cisco wanted to know as he and Caitlin made their way carefully down the embankment. Apparently it hadn’t rained recently, so the water was low.

“Absolutely,” said Hartley’s voice in his ear. “The satellite readings are picking up a major heat signature coming from under that bridge.”

“I don’t see anything,” Cisco complained. The space beneath the bridge was dark, with no tell-tale fire to light up the shadows.

“Wait,” said Caitlin, squinting in the gloom, “I think I see something.”

Carefully they picked their way along the riverbank closer to the bridge. As they approached Cisco narrowed his eyes, trying to see, and found that he did in fact notice a faint light.

“Let’s just hope it’s not some hobo with a burning trash can,” Cisco grumbled. His shoes were wet and muddy.

“Trust me,” said either Jesse or Jessica’s voice, he couldn’t tell which. “It’s him.”

The light grew brighter as they made their way into the shadow of the bridge, a large structure supported by concrete pillars. Between two of them was the unmistakable flickering of fire.

“Ronnie?” Caitlin called, her voice sounding broken and desperate.

The fire moved, and they stopped short a few yards away to see it resolve itself into the form of a man, hunched over as though in pain. He stood, slowly, and turned to look at them.

“Ronnie!” Cisco and Caitlin chorused.

“It’s him?” Wally asked, but Cisco barely heard him. He was so focused on seeing Ronnie, alive, after all this time of thinking he was dead. Could it really be true? He was the one who’d brought them here, but he hardly dared to believe it himself.

Ronnie, however, was focused on Caitlin.

“Cait?” he said in a whisper, the flames licking around his face, through his long, unkempt hair.

“Ronnie,” Caitlin repeated, reaching out a hand. “It’s me. Are you okay?”

“I’m-” suddenly Ronnie groaned, doubling over in pain.

“Ronnie!” Caitlin cried, rushing forward, “Ronnie I’m here!”

“Stay away!” Ronnie shouted, throwing out one flaming hand. 

“Who are you merged with?” Cisco asked. “Can you demerge? We can help you-”

“I . . . can’t . . .” Ronnie gasped out. “It’s Stein . . . he can’t . . .”

“He can,” Caitlin insisted. “You can show him how.”

“I don’t . . . have . . .” Ronnie thumped a hand against his chest, demonstrating his lack of a quantum splicer.

“Here,” Cisco pulled Deathstorm’s old quantum splicer, acquired from Detective West-Allen, out of his bag and threw it to Ronnie. He nearly fumbled the catch, but managed to get it onto his chest. It spread its arms like a spider around him, but he continued to clutch at his stomach as though in pain.

“It’s no good,” Ronnie shook his head, “not . . . working.”

“You can do this Ronnie,” Cisco assured him. “I know you can.”

“Fight!” Caitlin cried, looking close to tears. “Don’t give up!”

She took a few steps closer and Ronnie stumbled back, but Caitlin slowed and he stood still as she approached.

“Come back to me,” she said quietly.

Ronnie groaned, doubling over in pain again, but then he straightened. He grunted with the effort, breathing hard, and Caitlin and Cisco watched with baited breath as he sucked in air as though preparing for a great effort. At last he threw out his arms and shouted, and there was a great flash of light that made Cisco and Caitlin both turn their heads.

When they looked back, both Ronnie and Stein were standing there looking at each other in surprise.

“Ronnie!” Caitlin practically screamed, running forward and throwing herself into his arms.

“Cait,” Ronnie whispered, holding her tightly and kissing her hair.

“What . . .” Stein said, looking down at his own body in confusion. “What happened? How am I . . .”

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Cisco laughed. “But I have a question.”

“Yeah?” Ronnie asked as Stein continued to look confused.

“How is Stein here?” Cisco wanted to know. “He fell back into Earth-1 when the singularity closed.”

“It’s the Stein from this Earth,” Ronnie explained, still hugging Caitlin.

“Are you not going to kill me?” Stein wondered, looking dazedly at Cisco.

Cisco held up his hands to display their emptiness, but at Stein’s flinch suddenly he remembered his powers and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Nah man,” he said, smiling sheepishly, “I’m not Reverb. Name’s Vibe.”

Stein continued to look blearily around as though deeply confused. “How am I here?”

“You got your body back dude!” Cisco said excitedly. Carefully he approached Stein, and when he didn’t jerk away Cisco clapped him on the shoulder.

“We should probably get out from under this bridge,” Ronnie said, looking disparagingly down at himself. “I need a shower.”

***

“So you were the one who was stuck inside the Accelerator?” Jesse asked curiously, once they were safely back at Jessica’s lab. Stein was sitting in the cortex, nursing a cup of coffee and still looking a bit perplexed.

“It was Wells,” Stein said, confusion fading beneath bitterness. “We decided to work together on the Firestorm project, but then he published it under his own name. I told him I’d see him in disgrace for it, so he locked me in his . . .  infernal device.”

“Yep,” said Cisco at Jesse’s amused look, “he always talks like that.”

Quietly he thanked his lucky stars that Wally and Jessica had decided to take a walk. He didn’t know how Jessica would react to her father being spoken about like this.

“But how’d you get merged with Ronnie?” Caitlin asked. She was sitting in her husband’s lap, the two of them reluctant to let go of each other. Ronnie had showered in the radiation lab, and was now cuddling Caitlin with abandon.

Stein stared off into space, his expression troubled. “I was merged with the other Ronald for so long,” he mused, “I suppose I forgot what it was like to have a physical body. When he died I became a kind of wraith, and went in search of a new . . . host.”

“He found me,” Ronnie explained. “I’d taken a hit to the head, so I was wandering aimlessly around the city with no idea who I was or how I’d gotten here. Even once I started to remember, I had no way to contact you.”

Caitlin made a mournful noise in her throat, and Ronnie nuzzled her affectionately.

“Well you’re here now,” Cisco said consolingly. “And it’s a good thing you found each other, really. Our Stein started to destabilize after a while, so we had to find him a new partner. You guys are going to have to remerge every now and again, to keep yourself from going all Blue Firestorm on your own.”

“How do you wanna do it?” Caitlin asked, looking back and forth between Ronnie and Stein. “We could come back every few months, or-”

“An untenable arrangement,” Stein protested, causing a ripple of surprised looks. “It’s far better that I simply accompany you to this other Earth.”

“Are you sure?” Ronnie asked, blinking in shock. “What about Clarissa?”

“You overestimate my ties to this world,” Stein said sadly. “My Clarissa is no more, unfortunately. Deathstorm destroyed everything I held dear in order to keep me subjugated. Eventually I stopped trying to fight. I had nothing left to fight for.”

Jesse reached out a hand and placed it atop Stein’s. “I know what it’s like to lose everything,” she said quietly. “We’ll find you a place on our Earth.”

Stein gave her a tired smile.

***

“Stein?” said Barry in confusion as the last of the party came through the portal.

Stein turned to whisper conspiratorially to Jesse. “Should I know who he is?”

“This is Barry,” Jesse introduced. “He’s this world’s Flash.”

“Ah,” said Stein, looking relieved. “A pleasure to meet you young man.”

“He’s the Stein from Earth-2,” Cisco explained as Barry continued to look confused. “He and Ronnie are the new Firestorm.”

“Wait, that means there are two Firestorms,” Jesse realized.

“Oh snap,” Cisco’s eyes widened. “We need to come up with a new name!”

“I’ll leave that to you,” said Joe, still embracing Iris and Wally. He let go of his children, then turned to face Iris. “We got another lead on a metahuman Eiling may have abducted.”

“Eiling?” Stein asked. “The disgraced army General?”

“Wait, disgraced?” asked Hartley, eyebrows raised. “You mean on your Earth he’s not abducting metahumans for sadistic experiments?”

“Good lord no,” Stein said in alarm. “He was dishonorably discharged for his work with gorillas! It came out what terrible things he was doing to them and his career was over!”

“That’s it!” said Iris, startling everyone. “That’s what we need to do about Eiling!”

“Get him busted for harming gorillas?” Cisco wondered.

“No,” Iris said, “get him busted for abduction and unlawful detainment!”

“And torture,” Hartley added, “don’t forget the torture.”

“I know that look,” said Barry, narrowing his eyes at Iris. “You’ve got a plan.”

“As a matter of fact,” Iris said smugly, “I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only two more chapters of this tripe to go.


	12. Exposed

“So, do you think Iris’s plan will work?” Caitlin wondered as she popped the pizza rolls into the oven.

Cisco took his attention off the popcorn in the microwave to shoot her a disbelieving look. “It’s Iris,” he said, “of course it’ll work.”

The two of them had the house to themselves, Iris and Barry out to dinner and Wally and Jesse off at the movies. Ronnie was reluctant to leave Caitlin alone, but Stein had wanted to see his counterpart and this world’s Clarissa and Ronnie had agreed to make the introduction before things got awkward. It’d been a while since Cisco and Caitlin had hung out, just the original STAR Labs duo without anyone else, so they’d decided to make a night of it. The gentle sounds of the new “Ghostbusters” DVD menu were emanating from the other room, and the snacks would be ready soon.

“But if it doesn’t,” Caitlin suggested, a little fearfully, “what do we do then? We’ll have tipped our hand.”

“Since when do you doubt Iris?” Cisco wanted to know. The microwave dinged, and Cisco turned his attention fully onto Caitlin.

“I don’t doubt her,” Caitlin hedged, “I’m just worried.”

“About what?” Cisco wanted to know.

“Well,” Caitlin tucked her hair behind her ear, “Eiling’s pretty dangerous. And he’s smart; it’ll take a lot to trick him.”

“That’s why we came up with a pretty elaborate trick,” Cisco pointed out. “It’s got multiple parts and everything.”

“Do you think he’ll be fooled?” Caitlin asked doubtfully.

“It won’t matter,” Cisco shrugged. “We’re playing on his weaknesses. He won’t be able to resist.”

“I guess,” Caitlin sighed.

Cisco considered her for a minute. “There’s more to it than that,” he realized.

Caitlin looked down. “Eiling’s caused us a lot of grief. He’s threatened too many of my friends, and now that we’ve got Ronnie back-”

“We’re not gonna risk Ronnie,” Cisco cut her off seriously. “We’re not doing that, not on my watch.”

“No,” Caitlin gave a weak smile. “We’re just risking you.”

“Hey,” Cisco took a few steps toward Caitlin, then reached out and took both her hands. “I’m gonna be fine.”

“You’re taking a big risk,” Caitlin protested.

“I’ve got more moves than you give me credit for,” Cisco insisted, making Caitlin smile. Then he glanced down, his eyes hooded. “Besides,” he said, with forced cheer, “worst comes to worst Thawne . . . Thawne won’t let him hurt me too bad.”

“I’m honored by your faith in me,” said a voice from the doorway to the kitchen.

Cisco and Caitlin both jumped and spun around to look at the door. Standing framed by the granite and glass was Eobard Thawne, hands clasped behind his back and a slight smile playing around his mouth.

“You,” Cisco hissed, shoving Caitlin behind himself. He held one palm out, ready to fire.

Thawne held up both hands, displaying his empty palms. “I didn’t come here to fight you Cisco,” he said simply.

“Too bad!” Cisco shot back, then fired on Thawne.

Thawne dodged out of the way at lightning speed, then zipped around the kitchen island to seize Cisco’s wrist. He twisted it, forcing Cisco’s arm behind his back, then grabbed the other wrist and did the same. In the blink of an eye he had Cisco bent over the table, face pressed against the granite countertop.

“Settle down,” Thawne said, gently but firmly, as though talking to an excitable dog.

“Settle this!” Caitlin screamed, yanking the restraint Cisco had made her off her wrist. She grabbed hold of Thawne’s shoulder, and instantly ice began to creep over his suit.

Immediately Thawne flung out an arm to throw her off. Cisco yelled out her name as Caitlin went flying, landing on the floor and sliding until the back of her head struck a cabinet.

The distraction was enough for Cisco to twist out of Thawne’s grip, catching him with an elbow in the ribs. In his rage he didn’t even think to use his powers, just turned around and connected his fist with Thawne’s jaw. Thawne went reeling, but quickly righted himself and sped around to the other side of the island.

“I just came here to talk,” Thawne said loudly as Cisco ran over to where Caitlin was still slumped against the cabinet. She blinked, dazed, but sat up and looked at Thawne.

Thawne looked almost pained. “Is she alright?” he asked, frowning in concern.

“Like you care,” Cisco spat, helping Caitlin to sit and then stand. She clutched at the counter, but managed to keep her feet.

“Whether you believe me or not, I do care about you,” Thanwe said, “both of you. The fact that you know I would protect you from Eiling shows that you know it’s true.”

“I believe that you need us for something,” Cisco corrected. “I don’t know what it is, but as soon as it’s done I know you’ll be done with us too.”

“You think I’ll ever be done with happiness?” Thawne raised an eyebrow. “With companionship? With family?”

“If you think we will ever be anything resembling a family you’re crazier than even Joe thinks,” Caitlin piped up. “And he thinks you’re the craziest perp he’s ever encountered.”

Thawne gave a wry smile. “Detective West is as charming as ever I see.”

“Did you come here to insult our friends?” Cisco asked. “I see why you’d think that would make you more like a father, but-”

“I did not come here to talk about Detective West,” Thawne admitted, cutting Cisco off.

“Then what did you want to talk about?” Caitlin demanded, still leaning on the counter for support.

“You’re hurt,” Thawne protested.

“You hurt me,” Caitlin argued.

Thawn closed his eyes a moment, taking a deep breath through his nose. “That I did,” he admitted, then gave Caitlin an apologetic look. “Forgive me?”

“Go to hell,” Caitlin suggested.

Apparently deciding he was done dealing with Caitlin, Thawne turned his attention on Cisco. “Will you hear me out?”

Cisco looked between Thawne and Caitlin, weighing his options. All it would take was one good hit and Thawne would be down for the count, but Caitlin was already hurt and might need medical attention. He couldn’t risk both of them passing out from concussions when no one was due back at the house for hours.

“Talk,” Cisco gritted out. Caitlin shot him a pained look, but didn’t say anything.

Thawne smiled. “There,” he cooed, “that wasn’t so-”

“Before I change my mind,” Cisco warned, holding out one palm threateningly.

Thawne sighed, then the look of concern slid off his face to be replaced by one of grim seriousness.

“The two of you need to join me,” he said. “Now.”

“I’m gonna second Caitlin’s motion of you going to hell,” Cisco spat.

“This is not a game anymore,” Thawne said firmly. “A storm is coming and I can’t protect you if you stay with the Flash.”

“We don’t need you to protect us,” Caitlin told him.

“Really?” Thawne raised an eyebrow. “Because from where I’m standing neither one of you is ready for a fight.”

“You don’t know what we’re capable of,” Cisco shot back, but it sounded weak even to his own ears.

“I know exactly what both of you are capable of,” Thawne argued, “down to the hertz and the degree. I made you, both of you-”

“You may have given us our powers,” Caitlin admitted, “but you didn’t make us. We made us.”

“We have no more time for this childishness,” Thawne growled, and finally it seemed as though his ironclad control was slipping. “You need to come with me, now.”

“Do you honestly think that would ever happen?” Cisco yelled. “That we would ever, in a million years, side with you?”

“It’s your only chance to survive what’s coming,” Thawne insisted.

“Then I guess we’re both doomed,” Cisco retorted.

He glared, and Thawne glared back. For a moment they stood there, staring at each other, until finally Thawne closed his eyes and sighed.

“I’ll do what I can for you,” he said simply, and then in a flash of red lightning he was gone.

***

General Wade Eiling was not a man with a great deal of patience.

His world revolved around getting results, as quickly and efficiently as possible. Minimal use of resources, maximum destructive potential, these were the tenants that governed his existence. His job was to do as much damage to his enemies as possible, hit them hard and never give them a chance to strike back. His profession demanded swift, merciless action.

He did not like waiting.

“You and I need to talk, Mr. Thawne,” Eiling said, addressing the metahuman in front of him.

“ _Professor_ Thawne,” corrected the meta. He was reclining on the sofa in the _very_ luxurious quarters he’d been afforded in the military base. He didn’t use them all the time, but he’d insisted on them nonetheless. At the time Eiling had thought it a small price to pay for all he could gain.

Now he was questioning that.

“You do remember what our deal was, don’t you?” Eiling asked at the meta’s nonresponsive reply.

“My memory is perfect,” said the meta, with a placidly pleasant look on his face.

Eiling ground his teeth. “You were to provide me with information about the Flash and Firestorm-”

“Which I have done,” interrupted the meta, still with that infuriatingly pleased look on his face.

“-help me collect metahumans-”

“I have followed your orders to the letter.”

“-and bring me the metahumans Vibe and Killer Frost,” Eiling finished.

The meta tilted his head to the side as though confused. “And I will,” he said calmly, as though he had no idea what Eiling’s point could be.

“When?” Eiling demanded.

“When they’re ready,” the meta replied, as vague as ever.

“When will they be ‘ready’ _Professor?_ ” Eiling sneered at the title.

“I’ll let you know,” the meta said flippantly.

“Not good enough!” snapped Eiling. “They were meant to be working for me by now. They were meant to be helping me capture the Flash!”

A smile flitted across the meta’s face. “They’re stubborn,” he said, almost fondly. “I trained them myself.”

“You bargained for their freedom in exchange for their cooperation,” Eiling reminded him. “So far, they are not cooperating.”

“They will,” the meta said, a little more firmly this time. “I just need a little more time to work on them. Eventually they’ll understand what a fraud the Flash is, and then they’ll choose me over him.”

Eiling’s already tenuous patience was growing thinner. “You seem to the be under the impression that I need them,” he said. “Or you, for that matter. I can get what I want from them just as easily by capturing them as I can recruiting them.”

“You can’t capture them,” the meta explained as though Eiling were a small child, “they’ll never obey you if you hurt them. Believe me, you want them to obey you.”

“Why?” Eiling gritted out.

“Because they’re both brilliant,” the meta replied. “Their scientific prowess is unparalleled, and certainly on your staff; you don’t just want their powers. You want their minds.”

Eiling growled. “They had better be worth this,” he said, “or-”

He was abruptly cut short by the crackle of his radio.

“General,” said the voice of one of his many underlings. “You’re going to want to see this.”

“This being?” Eiling demanded, never taking his eyes off the meta.

“It’s . . . it’s Cisco Ramon sir,” said the underling. “He’s here.”

***

Eobard was on his feet and out the door before Eiling could reply to the voice on his radio. At the sound of Cisco’s name his heart leaped, and for one glorious moment he thought that it had finally happened. Cisco and Caitlin had finally seen reason. They had decided to renounce their allegiance to the Flash and join him. They were coming home.

When he reached the front gate the blink of an eye later, that hope was dashed.

Cisco was lying on the ground surrounded by Eiling’s men. Eobard easily pushed to the front of the crowd, to see Cisco -- his Cisco -- looking like he’d just been beaten to within an inch of his life. Both eyes were black, his nose was bloody, and there was a large split in his swollen lower lip. He was curled in on himself as though his abdomen were hurting him, and Eobard had to wonder if one of the soldiers had kicked him. He’d have the man’s head if it were true.

“Cisco,” he said softly, kneeling beside the child he’d long ago begun to call his own. “Cisco are you alright? How bad is it?”

“Hurts,” Cisco managed hoarsely.

“Where?” Eobard rolled him over and began to probe delicately at his stomach, checking for injuries.

At one particular spot Cisco hissed, and Eobard lifted his shirt to find a deep purple bruise blossoming there.

Eobard turned to one of the men beside him. “Don’t just stand there!” he yelled, letting the lightning flash in his eyes. “Get a stretcher! We need to get him inside, now!”

The man hastened to obey.

“What happened?” Eobard asked as he turned his attention back to Cisco, caught between anger and worry. “Who did this?”

“Barry,” Cisco gritted out, and anger won over in Eobard’s heart.

“What did he do?” Eobard demanded. “Did he do this to you?”

“We . . . had a fight,” Cisco told him, voice troublingly weak. “He won.”

“I’ll kill him,” Eobard swore, pulling Cisco into his arms. “I’ll have his head. I’ll make him suffer, I’ll-”

“What’s going on?” barked the voice of General Eiling. So, he had finally made it upstairs.

Unlike when Eobard had pushed his way through, the crowd parted to admit the General easily. He looked down his nose at where Eobard was kneeling on the ground with Cisco in his lap, and sneered.

“Get him inside,” he told no one in particular, and the two men nearest them went to pick Cisco up by the arms.

“No,” Eobard growled, clutching the boy to his chest, “he needs a stretcher, he needs to go to-”

“I said get him inside,” Eiling repeated, louder this time, and Eobard found his child being wrested from his embrace

Eobard stood, fuming, and follow them inside.

To his surprise, they did not take Cisco immediately to get medical treatment. Instead he was dragged to an interrogation room and strapped into one of the chairs Eiling used for his “guests,” as he sometimes referred to them. Eobard made a noise of protest as Cisco’s arms were secured to the chair, and when a strap went over a nasty cut on his forehead, making him cry out, Eobard had had enough.

“What are you doing?” he demanded of Eiling. “He needs medical attention, not-”

“You might want to leave the room Professor,” Eiling advised, not taking his eyes off Cisco’s limp form. “I’m going to have a little chat with your pet.”

“Can’t this wait?” Eobard protested. Cisco’s eyes had begun to droop, and Eobard was wary of letting him lose consciousness.

Eiling picked up what appeared to be a cattle prod off a nearby table and pressed it against Cisco’s side. Cisco screamed, and Eobard immediately snatched the instrument out of Eiling’s hand.

“What is _wrong_ with you?” Eobard found himself nearly yelling in his fury. “You said he and Caitlin wouldn't be harmed. You said I could have them!”

“That was if you convinced them to come willingly,” Eiling replied, seeming untroubled by Eobard’s perturbation.

“He came to me after Barry attacked him,” Eobard argued. “He came for help!”

“And as soon as I’m sure that’s what he came for, he’ll get it,” Eiling promised.

Cisco whimpered gently.

Eobard glanced down at him, wanting to go to him, but he couldn’t let himself be distracted from Eiling.

“I’ve kept up my end of the bargain,” he began. “I gave you all the information I had. followed your every order, even when I didn’t agree. This was my one stipulation, that Cisco and Caitlin were to be given to me, alive and undamaged.”

“You’ve been most helpful,” Eiling admitted, “but perhaps I need to remind you: you don’t call the shots here.”

“You don’t want to double cross me,” Eobard warned.

“I have no intention of double crossing anyone,” Eiling assured him. “But I am going to make sure of the security of this base before I honor any deals with metahumans.”

Eobard glared, breathing hard through his nose. He glanced down at Cisco, whose eyes had fallen closed again. If this could reassure Eiling that he was no threat, if it could affirm thier safety here . . . Well, it would only be the one time. Cisco would forgive him.

“When you’re through,” he said to Eiling, not taking his eyes off Cisco, “he’s mine.”

“Take a walk Professor,” Eiling picked up another wicked looking instrument from the table that had held the cattle prod. “I doubt you want to see this.”

Eobard sped from the room.

***

*Either the boy had been given training in withstanding interrogation, or he was telling the truth.

Eiling wasn’t inclined to speculate on which, but he had to make a decision. Thus far his pet speedster’s prize had produced no other explanation for his presence than the one he’d already given. He was a mouthy little thing, but a half hour’s work had worn that down until he was feeling a little more compliant.

“Why are you here?” Eiling asked, for the 27th time since they’d started. He’d been keeping careful track.

“I told you,” the brat rasped, “I came for help. Barry-”

“Doesn’t seem the type to turn on his allies so easily,” Eiling said skeptically. “What were you fighting about?”

“We-” a cough, spewing blood onto the front of his shirt, “-we had a difference of opinion.”

“Over what?” Eiling pressed, not giving an inch. You couldn’t show mercy to these metas, or they’d stab you in the back the minute it was turned.

“Over-”

“Sir,” Eiling’s radio crackled to life. “There’s a speedster on the premises.”

“I _know_ there’s a speedster on the premises,” Eiling growled back. “He’s my-”

“Sir,” the voice interrupted, and Eiling made a mental note to have the man denied meals for a few days. “The Reverse-Flash is in his room. It’s someone else.”

“All units mobilize!” Eiling barked back, turning away from his interrogation. “Bring me that speedster now!”

He sprinted to the main control room, where every security camera in the base had been brought up on the screens.

“Where is he?” Eiling snapped at the nearest man.

“First quadrant Sir,” the man replied promptly, indicating one corner of the grid of screens where a whitish blur was passing in front of the camera. “Closing in now.”

Already several trucks were moving into position to box the speedster in, leaving him trapped against the perimeter wall. He ran in every direction, but no matter where he went one of the anti speedster weapons fired on him. Eventually he had nowhere left to go but into a corner.

He skidded to a stop.

“What?!” cried the man nearest to Eiling.

Eiling merely growled.

It wasn’t the Flash they had backed into a corner, nor Jesse Quick nor even the new kid that some people had sighted. It was a motorcycle, painted sparkling silver, atop which a blonde woman now sat with her hands in the air.

“Sorry boys,” Eiling heard her call through the speakers, “hope you weren’t expecting someone else!”

“Take her into custody!” Eiling yelled.

“But Sir, she’s a police officer,” the man protested, pointing to where her badge glinted on the screen. “We don’t have the authority-”

“Then get that bike off her,” Eiling amended. “I want that technology!”

At the behest of the soldiers surrounding her the woman dismounted from the motorcycle, but no sooner was she ten steps away from it than the engine began to smoke.

“Whoops,” she flashed a smile at the nearest camera, “looks like I rode her too hard. Better get down.”

The woman dropped to the ground, several of the soldiers following suit, and not a moment too soon. The bike exploded, shrapnel flying in every direction and taking out the security camera they’d been watching her on.

Eiling growled again and turned away, heading back downstairs. The speedster’s pet had something to do with this, and he was going to find out what.

When he reached the interrogation room, his prisoner was gone.

“Find him!” Eiling yelled into his radio, and immediate the entire base was put on alert. Alarms blared and boots thundered down hallways as the compound was searched. The only thing they found, however, were two unconscious scientists in one of the labs.

“What did he get?” Eiling demanded in a low voice when he saw one of his officers bent over a computer.

“Looks like he was accessing files in the metahumans we’ve captured Sir,” the man replied promptly. “He’s got all our data on the experiments we’ve been running.”

Eiling turned to the two soldiers behind him.

“Bring me Thawne.”

***

“It’s coming on!” Cisco called from the next room.

Barry sped to clear the remnants of dinner from the dining table as everyone filed hurriedly into the West family living room. Ciso, Patty and Iris were already seated on the couch, and everyone settled in around them, facing the television. The opening theme to the six o’clock news was playing, and as they watched it faded into an image of a very pretty newscaster.

“Good evening,” she began. “As most of you know the hot topic of conversation today was Central City Picture News reporter Iris West, and her exposè on corruption in the military. According to uncovered military documents a General Wade Eiling has been abducting and performing illegal experiments on a number of private citizens. The controversy? These individuals are metahumans.”

“They say that like it’s a bad thing,” Cisco protested, glowering at the TV.

Joe leaned over the back of the couch to squeeze his shoulder. “It’ll get better.”

The woman on the screen was still talking. “As a response to this shocking information, the question has been raised by many: are these experiments justified, and do these metahuman prisoners deserve the same rights as ordinary citizens? We asked several government officials for comment.”

“Absolutely they do,” the image changed to a shot of a senator standing surrounded by microphones and cameras. “These people are the same as you and I, they deserve the same rights and protections. They didn’t choose to be what they are, and everyone is entitled to protection under the law.”

“There can be no question of whether or not these experiments are ethical,” began another, elderly official as the shot changed again. “The fact of the matter is that they’re necessary. We need to know how to fight these metahumans for the safety of all; we have no other choice.”

“I think that people tend to forget that the Flash is a metahuman,” a woman this time, standing outside the courthouse. “Jesse Quick is a metahuman, even this new kid-”

“I’m not a kid!” Wally interjected.

“-that we’ve seen running around is a meta. It’s not _what_ these people are, it’s _who_ they are; they’re not inherently dangerous, and we can’t treat them like a homogenous threat.”

“These metas are a menace,” another senator, this one younger and more attractive. “We cannot let them be out on the streets, for the safety of our children. What General Eiling is doing is nothing more than his job; keeping us safe from threats foreign and domestic.”

The shot cut back to the newscaster. “General Eiling was unavailable for comment at this time, but already people are calling for his dishonorable discharge from the army and criminal prosecution. No official statement has been released.”

“Nicely done,” Cisco held up his hand to Iris for a hive five, and she slapped his palm. “You did it.”

“We did it,” Iris corrected, looking between him and Patty with a broad grin.

“You know,” Barry came around the back of the couch beside Joe and stretched out his arms to encompass the three of them, “you guys make a pretty good team.”

“We do don’t we,” Patty said, with an air of deepest satisfaction.

Cisco glanced over at Jesse, to see her staring at the TV with a frown.

“Jesse?” he called, his grin fading. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Jesse said, shaking herself and then pasting a smile onto her face. “I’m fine. I’ll be better when Eiling’s behind bars.”

“Do you think that’ll happen?” Hartley wondered. “He might get off with a dishonorable discharge.”

“If this world is anything like mine, he’ll be up on criminal charges,” Stein piped up.

“A lot about this world is different,” Jesse pointed out.

“But many things are the same,” Stein assured her, smiling benevolently.

“It can’t happen soon enough,” said Ronnie from where he and Caitlin were squished into an armchair, and Caitlin made a small noise of agreement.

“When do you think it’ll happen?” Cisco asked no one in particular.

Iris shrugged. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Cisco nodded, then got up from his place on the couch. As the rest of the gathering continued to talk amongst themselves he went to the kitchen and opened the fridge, hoping Joe had something alcoholic available. Never one to disappoint, Joe had a pack of Cisco’s favorite beer chilled and ready, and Cisco smiled, knowing that Joe probably bought them especially for the aftermath of their mission.

As he leaned down to take one though he felt a sharp pain in his side, and he clutched at it hurriedly, waiting for the pain to dull.

“How bad was it?” asked a voice from the doorway. Cisco stood quickly, looking over to see Caitlin staring at him with sad, worried eyes.

The pain in his side hadn’t yet gone away, so he rubbed at it, feeling the marks Eiling had left on him. “Pretty bad,” he admitted, closing the fridge again. “I mean, I guess I have no basis for comparison, but I’m glad Patty taught me those tricks to get through it.”

Caitlin frowned in concern. “And Thawne didn’t stop it?”

“He tried,” Cisco recounted. “Eiling overruled him.”

“I guess he was right about not being able to protect us,” Caitlin looked down at her hands.

“We don’t need him to protect us,” Cisco told her seriously. “We have Barry. We have each other, and Jesse and Wally and Ronnie. We have our own powers.”

“Powers Thawne gave to us,” Caitlin pointed out. “Because he wanted us to be strong.”

Cisco looked off to one side. “When Eiling was starting in on me, and Thawne was trying to stop him, he kept saying that I was his. That that was the deal, that you and me were supposed to be ‘given’ to him.”

“What did Eiling say to that?” Caitlin wondered.

“They compromised,” Cisco shrugged. “Thawne said that when Eiling was done with me, I would be his. Like what happened to me didn’t matter, as long as he could have me afterward.”

He looked back at Caitlin, trying to make her understand, and she met his gaze with a grim expression.

“He didn’t give us these powers because he wanted us to be strong,” Cisco explained. “He did it because he wanted to make us things that he could own.”

Cisco opened the fridge again and, wincing through the pain, pulled two beers out of the pack. He stood, offering one to Caitlin, and she took it. He popped the lid off his and took a drink.

“I am not a thing,” he said. “His or anyone’s.”

Caitlin shook her head. “Me either.”

Cisco held out his bottle, and they clinked them together.

***

Eobard had helped Eiling develop the anti-speedster weapons. He’d submitted himself to many uncomfortable tests, told them all that he knew about the speed force and even given them some of his own designs. It was all in the service of defeating Barry Allen, so he didn’t mind making weapons that could be used against his own kind. He wouldn’t have given them anything that could be used against Cisco or Caitlin, even if such weapons as could stand against Cisco existed, but Eobard hated too many speedsters not to arm his allies against them.

He had not, however, anticipated them ever being used on him.

Semi-conscious, he felt more than saw himself being dragged inside. He’d only been out for a short run, just to clear his head of the mental image of Cisco being tortured, and he’d returned to find an ambush waiting for him. He was thrown into an interrogation chair, and dimly he felt himself being strapped in. For a moment he struggled, trying to summon his speed, but it was no good. He’d made the neurotoxin they’d used on him too potent. He couldn’t escape his own trap.

They kept him there for some time, continually injecting him with the neurotoxin. Sluggishly he felt time pass, unable to move or speak. Finally, after what felt like more than a day, the door opened, outside his field of vision, and then closed again.

“Mr. Thawne,” said a familiar voice, and out of the shadows stepped the General.

“Professor,” Eobard spat.

“I don’t think you get to decide that anymore, meta,” Eiling smiled cruelly.

“I warned you not to double cross me,” Eobard bit out. He was in no position to make threats at the moment, but Eobard Thawne was nothing if not patient. Eventually, he would get his chance for revenge.

“I believe I gave you the same warning,” Eiling pointed out, as though this made any sense.

“What is the meaning of this?” Eobard demanded. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Dealing with a traitor,” Eiling said simply. Then something poked against Eobard’s side and pain shot through him. The cattle prod.

“What do you mean?” Eobard questioned when his breathing had returned to normal.

“I mean you let your little pet run loose in my facility and he _stole_ from me,” Eiling growled. The cattle prod was applied again, and Eobard groaned through clenched teeth. He forced himself to breathe through the pain, but his body wasn’t healing fast enough, and the ache remained even when Eiling removed the instrument.

“Cisco,” Eobard said between panting breaths.

“Whatever his name is,” Eiling replied dismissively.

“Where is he?” Eobard snapped, panic shooting through him, more potent than pain. “What have you done with him?”

“As if you don’t know,” Eiling sneered.

“You let him escape,” Eobard realized. “You idiot, you let him-”

“ _You_ let him escape!” Eiling barked. “You’re the one who freed him!”

“How does that serve my purposes?” Eobard demanded. “He was here. He was _mine!_ How does letting him get away make any sense?”

“You didn’t like how I was treating him and so you let him go,” Eiling accused.

“This was clearly a ploy from the beginning,” Eobard corrected. “A plot, by the Flash, who is the enemy of us both.”

“I don’t believe you,” Eiling informed him coldly, then pressed the cattle prod to Eobard’s side again. This time he didn’t remove it after a moment; he held it there, refusing to let up.

Eobard’s groan quickly morphed into a scream.

***

“We should do something nice for Cisco,” Ronnie announced.

Caitlin took her attention off the popcorn in the microwave to glance at him. “Not that I need an excuse to be nice to Cisco,” she replied, “but what brought that on?”

“It was really brave, what he did,” Ronnie explained. “Taking on Eiling like that? And getting tortured for almost an hour? He deserves something for all that.”

The popcorn had slowed down to a pop roughly every two seconds, so Caitlin stopped the microwave and removed the bag. Leaving it on the counter to cool, she went to wrap her arms around Ronnie.

“I wish you’d been here the last two years,” she sighed. “Cisco could have used that attitude, but I was too busy missing you to notice.”

“It seems like he’s been through a lot,” Ronnie agreed, putting his arms around Caitlin in return.

“Remind me never to tell you about Harry,” Caitlin giggled.

“Harry?” Ronnie asked, perplexed. “You’ve really gotta fill me in on the time I’ve missed.”

“Some things are better left unsaid,” Caitlin rested her head on Ronnie’s chest. With his arms around her, her nose buried in his shirt, she’d never felt so safe. So at home.

“He did it for you, you know,” she said.

“Who did what?” Ronnie asked. She could feel him nosing at her hair.

“Cisco,” she told him. “He took on Eiling so that you wouldn’t have to.”

“Now we really need to do something nice for him,” Ronnie laughed.

“We could finally agree to watch some of those black and white movies with him,” Caitlin suggested.

“Only if we can drag Barry along,” Ronnie stipulated. “He didn’t have to do anything either.”

“Deal,” Caitlin said, and kissed him.

Eventually they migrated to the living room and settled on the plush couch to start flipping through TV channels.

“Think there any any decent movies on?” Ronnie wondered, rhythmically clicking the remote.

“We have netflix on the roku,” Caitlin suggested. “Some cool shows came out while you were gone.”

Ronnie surrendered the remote, and Caitlin squinted in the dim light, looking for the source button. Before she could press it however, the dulcet tones of the “I Love Lucy” theme song were replaced by the urgent notes of the opening to a news bulletin. Ronnie and Caitlin sat up, staring fixedly at the screen as the woman who had reported on Iris’s story reappeared.

“We interrupt this broadcast to bring you breaking new,” she said, and Caitlin could have sworn she sounded almost frightened. “There has been a major containment breach at a military facility on the edge of Central City.”

“Containment breach?” Ronnie repeated as he and Caitlin exchanged worried glances.

“Dozens of metahuman prisoners have escaped the facility,” the woman went on, and Caitlin’s stomach dropped. “Several homes on the outskirts of the city have been broken into, and there are reports of injuries coming through. Our news copter captured this footage.”

The image on the screen cut to a blurry overhead angle shot which quickly resolved itself into focus, zooming in on the ground below. A man with bright green skin was clinging impossibly to the side of a house, looking down on the several people fleeing below him. He spit something at one of them, and immediately a large amount of a sticky blue substance engulfed her face, silencing her screams.

Caitlin squinted at the screen. There seemed to be some sort of collar around the man’s neck.

“Citizens are being urged to stay in their homes and not confront these metahumans,” the newscaster said once the shot had cut back to her. The military provided the following statement.”

Caitlin and Ronnie both gasped. There, on their television screen, was the face of General Eiling.

“I am placing this city under martial law,” he announced. “This menace will be dealt with, swiftly and mercilessly. I am going to restore order by any means necessary, and if that means killing every one of these threats I will do so.”

“Bastard,” Ronnie growls. “He’s released a bunch of crazy metas on the city!”

“If there’s one thing I want the public to know,” Eiling continued on the screen, “is that this is the Flash’s doing.”

“What?” Caitlin protested.

“Two days ago he broke into my facility and sabotaged the security measures,” Eiling lied. “He freed his little metahuman friends, and now they’re running amok in our city. These metas are all the same, intolerable threats to society, and I will tolerate them no longer.”

Eiling sneered, staring at the camera, and Caitlin felt almost as though he were looking right at her.

“You can all rest assured I will captured all of these metahumans, including the Flash. And when I do, they will never see the light of day again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those of you who are wondering, in my version of events the stupid jay = zoom twist wasn't a thing. caitlin spent all of season two missing ronnie and jay (who was really jay) went home to his wife at the end of the season.


End file.
